All the Elements for Disaster: X Files
by Radicool223
Summary: I've decided to adapt Sonic X into my story with a whole other adventure! Note that all that happens in this applies between chapters 11 and 12 in the original, so keep track of both!
1. Prologue

**Aaand here's the kickoff of All the Elements for Disaster: X Files! Yep, I'll bet you weren't expecting it this early, eh? I'd like to imaging that all this happens between chapters 11 and 12 (or episodes 9 and 10). Eeyup, this is gonna be fun!**

The Mane 6, Spike, and Cobalt were stuck in the library due to a sudden storm. Cobalt was looking through some dimension warping books, Twilight was nose deep in writing her diary, Spike was napping along with Rarity and Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash was playing poker with Applejack, and Pinkie was bouncing around on the ceiling.

All of a sudden, Cobalt yelled, "I've got it!"

Everypony who was awake was startled, and all who weren't were jerked out of their rest.

"Gah!" Rainbow's wings flared in surprise, a survival adaptation, and launched herself into the air. Gradually she settled back down with a slight blush and gritted teeth. "Don't scare me like that!"

Cobalt snorted. "Sorry, but I think I've found how we can get to Metal Sonic."

"Do _what _now?" Applejack slammed down a poker card. "Now why in tarnation would you wanna _find_ the evil varmit?"

"Because he has the chaos emerald, silly!" Pinkie sprang from the ceiling to the floor.

Fluttershy yawned. "What's up?"

"We're finding Metal Sonic." Twilight snapped her diary closed.

FLuttershy promptly fainted.

"You are aware you're completely mad?" Rarity clarified.

"Yes." Cobalt smiled. "Yes I am."

"And I lo–uh –like ya for it." Rainbow stopped herself before she let something slip.

"Now what do we have to do?" Twilight asked, readying herself for possibly the most complex spell she'd ever done.

"Well, according to this you won't have to do much. Most of the dimensional warping we clarified Metal Sonic did will be handled by the chaos it says to generate, and the rest will be taken care of by a nullifying pulse of pure harmony." Cobalt said, making it clear that they had everything they needed.

"We're behind ya all the way if you're sure." Applejack nodded.

"Completely." Fluttershy, who had woken up a few seconds ago due to an unusually short passing outing, whispered.

"It'll be super-duper fun!" Pinkie put in.

Rarity nodded. "Anything to assist a friend."

"Well, I haven't been on an adventure in the last, oh, two days." Rainbow grinned, giving Cobalt a noogie. "Ah, you know I love it!"

"I'll get the elements from Princess Celestia." Twilight added. "Spike!"

Spike wandered into the room with a sleepy look on his face, like he'd been rudely awakened. "Yes, your royal slave driver?"

"What was that?" Twilight asked sharply.

"Uh, nothing." Spike rubbed his eyes. "What's up?"

"We've decided to go and find Metal Sonic in his dimension to recover the chaos emerald that he took."

Spike processed this information and slowly pointed at himself. "We… as in me too?"

"Actually…" Twilight put a few moments of thought into it. "With any luck this should take a week at the most,"

"We've never _had_ any luck." Cobalt muttered darkly.

Twilight shot him a glare. "So do you think you could hold up running the library for about that long?"

Spike saluted, simply glad to be out of the potentially dangerous adventure. "Yes ma'am."

"Good, I need you to take a note to Princess Celestia requesting that she send the elements of harmony to here at once."

Spike grabbed a scroll and quill and scribbled a quick note, sending it with his fire breath. A few seconds another letter appeared out of the flames from his mouth, followed by a box.

He unfurled the scroll and read. "_My faithful student: I wish you luck in your endeavor, whatever that may be._"

Cobalt opened the box and handed each of the mares their individual elements in turn.

"Aw yeah!" Rainbow cheered, pumping a foreleg as if in triumph. "Let's do this!"

Cobalt pried open a floorboard and snagged the emerald. "So, how exactly do I–" his eyes flooded pure white and he collapsed on the floor.

"Um, more memories coming back?" Fluttershy suggested.

"Ah hope so." Applejack murmured.

ONE TITLE SEQUENCE LATER

**I would imagine this being a mashup between the Sonic X theme and the MLP FIM theme, with a more upbeat and rock feeling.**

Cobalt struggled to his feet in a black world that seemed to trail into color further on. "Well this is new."

"How art thou, Cobalt Spikes?" he heard a familiar voice ask.

Whipping around, he relaxed. "Princess Luna! Why are you here? Why am _I_ here?"

"I might ask the same questions." The princess of the night looked even more confused than Cobalt felt, but obviously felt comfortable enough around him no not use the royal 'we' or the royal Canterlot voice. "I was just going over the royal mail," She gritted her teeth and looked downward. "One of my least favorite duties, and I fell into this world. Art thou dreaming?"

"In a way, I guess. I think I'm going to get some more memories back." Cobalt looked thoughtful. "But I've never actually sensed anything but blurred shapes and voices. Is that why you're here? Do you know anything about my past!?"

"No, Cobalt. As the princess of the night, it is my duty to oversee the dreams of my subjects, and this duty must have bonded myself to thy dream." Luna blushed. "Uh, I do not think that if was for any other reason."

Cobalt raised an eyebrow. Why would one of the Princesses of Equestria act so awkward around him. "What, do you see something you like?" he flirted.

"Uh, heh," Luna blushed even harder and laughed nervously. _What's wrong with me?_ she wondered. _I-it's not like me to be so anxious for one of my subjects to like me. Why do I feel like this? Could it be…?_ She gave a slight shake of her head. _No. I swore I would never love when I accepted my royal duties._

"So, anyway." Cobalt pressed on to the real business. "D'you wanna help me to find where this memory thing is?"

"I would be pleased to." Luna agreed, letting him lead the way into the darkness. After getting farther into the darkness, Cobalt's vision was attracted by a flickering video frame at the edge of his vision. A shape appeared, a black and red one that seemed to be in a fight.

The figure yelled "Chaos control!" and the image disappeared.

"Would that be what thou wert looking for?" Luna asked, giving Cobalt a glance.

"I think so." Cobalt nodded, he felt himself slipping back into consciousness. "It was nice seeing you, Princess."

"Please, call me Luna." she smiled warmly.

"Okay, well, see you around Luna! Hang on, three, two, one, and…"

BACK IN THE REAL WORLD

His eyes snapped open back in the library with the mares staring down at him.

"What happened?" Twilight asked as he flapped into the air.

"Never mind that!" he snagged the emerald. "Say goodbye to Spike 'cause we're outta here!"

"Bye guys!" Spike called.

"Chaos Control!"

The green emerald was sucked into his chest and he directed a golden laser into the nearest wall, which tapped into Cobalt's energy, which was evident as he collapsed onto the ground with gritted teeth.

"We've gotta help him!" Rainbow gasped in fear for her crush.

"Now, girls!" Twilight commanded, and started the rainbow of harmony, concentrating it on the point where Cobalt's beam hit the wall. It expanded it and formed it into a portal.

Cobalt struggled to his hooves and jumped into the portal and the elements of harmony stopped emitting the rainbow. One at a time the mares leaped into the portal and vanished into another dimension. Rainbow stepped in last, giving Spike a salute as she did so. Spike returned it as the portal closed, leaving him shell shocked.

"Huh, well that happened." Spike muttered. "Anyway there's a can of ice cream with my name on it!" he stopped for a moment. "I have got to stop talking to myself," he muttered, then he charged toward the kitchen, yelling, "To freedom!"

**Yeah, that's right. I just did that.**

**Okay, so I'm going to work on this alongside my original story so that I can put in more Sonic X adaptations without keeping you all waiting for chapter 12 of the original.**

**Favorite, follow, review and all that, and keep out of trouble, my friends! I'm gone (for now)!**


	2. Dimension X Part 1

**dO hai! I've decided to try something new with this and the next chapter, aptly named Dimension X Part 1 and Dimension X Part 2. This will mostly alternate first person point of views between Cobalt and Rainbow Dash, really the only characters actually at play in this one.**

**I'll be updating pretty frequently until next Tuesday so watch for more chapters in the next week.**

Cobalt's POV

My name is Cobalt Spikes.

Apparently.

See, the problem is that I don't really know who I am. I sort of lost my memory and am stuck in a world where the dominant race is ponies.

I know, weird right?

Let me shoot straight with this. I don't belong. Or I feel like I don't belong. Sure, I seem normal enough on the outside, a sixteen year old male pegasus pony with dark blue fur, a darker mane, and emerald eyes, lives at the library and works as a weather pony. Normal. Totally freaking normal. But I don't feel right in Equestria. I-I just can't get at ease. I don't feel right in my own hooves and on top of that I have some sort of connection with these chaos emerald things that keep _randomly_ popping up and have been diagnosed with half balance amnesia, and it's just so bucking weird!

The only things that keep me from getting any more insane are my friends. Especially Rainbow Dash.

She makes me happy. She's a nice young pegasus filly, and well, I'm pretty much still a colt. I like her as more than a friend, but have yet to say anything. She accepts my amnesia and embraces it, unlike others who would push me away. She's made a solemn vow to help me recover my memory and acquire the chaos emeralds in any way, no matter the danger.

Pretty awesome girl, right?

So about, oh, two minutes ago we opened a dimensional portal to go and find a blue spasmodic robot that appeared only a few months ago and get back the chaos emerald he stole.

That pretty much describes a day in my life.

"Does this warp tunnel have any end!?" Rainbow yelled. The seven of us who had entered the portal had been immediately whisked into a roughly pipe shaped world where everything was creepily psychedelic. The 'walls' of the pipe were constantly shifting rainbow patterns that if you stared at them long enough were kinda hypnotic. On top of that there was an unbearable din that seemed to come from all around. I guess those were unformed dimensions.

Or demons. There's also the definite probability of demons.

Eventually we reached the 'end' of the pipe, another portal, and as soon as I passed through it I passed out. Unconscious, I mean.

UNKNOWN AMOUNT OF TIME LATER

A few minutes… or hours… later, I gradually began to see harsh, seemingly fake lights flicker at the edge of my vision. My senses slowly returned to me, registering mostly 'ow!' and a little 'what the what?'

"What are they?" an unfamiliar voice asked nervously over the incoherent chorus of the rest of the voices.

"Demons have life among us!" another raised into a high screech. "Fire and brimstone shall rain!"

I rose to my hooves and gazed around. "Again, this is new." I muttered, mostly to myself. I was standing on hard, black ground, surrounded what I guess were shops, and a herd of what mostly could be described as mutants. They had no fur, except for a small tuft that rested on the tops of their heads. Most were tan of skin, though others came in varying shades. They wore clothing; much like us ponies do on formal occasions. I think it may be to cover themselves with a sort of fur, sort of like an artificial pelt. But the oddest thing about these… creatures… was that they stood on only two legs, and that just isn't normal for ponies unless for hugging and biz that requires you to stand upright, but for these creatures it seemed perfectly natural.

Somepony stirred next to me. "Wow, dimension tunnels hurt." A familiar voice complained. I whipped my head around and saw Rainbow Dash lying on her back with wings outstretched and the element of loyalty still clasped around her neck. She looked really scared as she sat up surrounded by an unfamiliar environment.

"Dashie!" I hugged her, then faced the things circled around us. "Get ready, 'cause I have a feeling these things don't take kindly to strangers."

Rainbow Dash's POV

Honestly, Cobalt can be so dense sometimes. Where do you think Metal Sonic would have gone, the land of puffy bunnies? Duh the peoples here would be hostile. I was more worried about how we were going to fight these things if we weren't able to fly at the moment from post dimension travel weakness.

My name's Rainbow Dash, otherwise known as Rainbow, Dash, Dashie (to Cobalt and Pinkie Pie only!), or the second fastest thing in Equestria. I'm a fifteen year old female pegasus pony with a cyan coat, a rainbow colored mane and tail, and magenta eyes. I think Cobalt finds my eyes pretty.

Well, I hope he does. See, I sort of have a crush on him and can get kind of jealous when anyone else expresses feelings for him, but I've learned not to let that dictate what I do. I will never be able to forget that one time when I did.

Anyway, you've probably gotten an explanation of where we were and all that junk from Cobalt, so I'll just continue where he left off.

"Are you kidding me?" I whispered to him. "These things look like overgrown marshmallows!" I hesitated, seeing three of these said marshmallows dressed sharply in black with matching black caps run forward holding sticks of black wood. "Well, except for those ones."

"Ya sure ya can catch em, Ed?" one of the more overweight looking marshmallows asked another, thinner marshmallow who was creeping closer with a butterfly net.

"Relax Murphy!" the thin one reassured his comrade. "I have a cat at home, how different can these be?"

"A cat!?" I yelled in indignation. "_What_ exactly do you think I a–"

Cobalt slapped a hoof over my mouth to silence me. I guess I understood his motive. It was probably better not to make enemies until we were sure that these things were a threat. Even so, I crossed my forelegs unhappily and glared at the marshmallows.

"On my mark." Cobalt muttered under his breath as the marshmallow named Ed crept forward with his butterfly net. "Three… two… one…" Ed leaped forward and swung the net with a triumphant 'ha!' "Now!" we flapped hard and scattered in both directions, in case these marshmallows were actually fast enough to catch us.

We met up atop a four-wheeled carriage type thing that didn't seem to have anything to pull it. _Official Police Car_, I read off its side. This… 'police car'… seemed like it was self propelled, and made me wonder if it was a living thing that we'd landed on.

"Where the hay are we?" I asked.

"Um, would 'I don't know' be sufficient?" Cobalt shrugged.

"No!"

"I got 'em!" I heard Ed call as his butterfly net landed around me and Cobalt. Normally this would've been extremely embarrassing as we were right next to each other, but I was too pissed with these marshmallows at the moment to feel anything but anger.

Cobalt glanced at me and at the same time we shot off away from Ed, still trapped in the net, but dragging him along with us. Eventually he had the common sense enough to let go, and we flew into a park, letting him fly into a tree trunk. I'm pretty sure if we were going full speed, Ed would be dead, but at the moment he was only unconscious.

"Up top!" I exclaimed, and we high hooved.

"Wanna explore?" Cobalt offered.

"Dude, the sooner we can find this Metal Sonic poser the sooner we're out of here. Let's go!"

UNNAMED LOCATION

Third Person POV

"Commander!" a techie ran up with a page report. "There are two things running around Station Square that the police department can't handle on their own! They say these things are so fast that they had to come to you!"

"What are they?" The said commander seemed eager for a race.

"According to eyewitness reports, sir, they resemble pegasi."

"That old Greek myth?"

"Exactly, sir."

"Ready the team."

BACK WITH OUR HEROES

Cobalt's POV

"Your element!" I exclaimed, for the first time noticing that the gem of power Rainbow had been wearing around her neck had vanished since we had begun to go fast. "It's gone!"

"Wait, that's impossible!" Rainbow sounded baffled. "Only the bearer can remove it, and only on their own free will!" she went pinprick pupil as if she'd realized something terrible. "Wait, do you have the emerald?"

I hadn't thought to look for that yet. "Um, last time it phased into my mane for storage after I used it. Let me check." I reached behind my head and ran a foreleg through my spiky mane. "Well crap. Nothing."

"Do you think they might've…?"

"It's a definite possibility." Somehow we knew exactly what the other was talking about. I'd read stories about fictional sets of powerful gemstones scattering after use and shared them with Rainbow, who had given me a dull look and proclaimed reading was for eggheads.

"Should we wait for after we deal with Metal to find them?" she asked what I was thinking.

"It shouldn't take too long. Yeah."

We explored a little more until we came on top of a long strip of road elevated by concrete stilt-like things. A loud rumbling sound emitted from one end of the road. A few of those car things appeared over the horizon at speeds that might actually present a challenge.

The cars came to a dead stop in front of us and a marshmallow stepped out of the fanciest looking one. "Hello, pegasi." It greeted us.

"Thank you!" Rainbow responded, presumably glad that somepony finally recognized our species. "Now if you could find us a map that would be great."

"I've heard you're pretty fast." The marshmallow went on as if she hadn't spoken. "But nobody beats me, because I'm Sam Speed, the Leader of the S Team!"

_No_body? I wondered. _I guess terms are different here._

"If you want to run, I'd be fine with that. I'll even give you a head start." The marshmallow added.

I grinned. "Sounds good to me, mister Speed!"

The marshmallow named Sam seemed dumbfounded that we could talk, and I sort of found that gratifying, since now _we_ could surprise him.

"Yeah, I'm talking." I extended my wings and strutted back and forth on the road. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"So you're going to run." Sam Speed clarified dubiously.

"Well, more like fly, but we'll stick to being close to the ground to give you a chance." Rainbow taunted. "C'mon, let's go!" we flapped into the air, but didn't move yet, giving Sam a chance to get back into his car.

I sped off just over the surface of the road, kicking up a dust trail, leaving Rainbow to follow.

Pretty soon we heard the rumble of the cars tearing after us.

It cycled along like this. We kept trying out progressively faster speeds, and if this so-called S Team could keep up with those, we would accelerate. Eventually I wanted a rest, so I casually slowed a tiny bit and hitched a ride on the windshield of one of the cars.

"H-hey!" the marshmallow inside the car complained. "Stop that, you'll give the kids reading this story a dangerous influence!"

I cocked my head to the side just a little bit. "Kids, never recline on a moving car." _Sweet Celestia, that sounds like something Pinkie Pie would say!_

I launched myself from the car and rejoined my companion.

After a few more seconds of this, Rainbow flipped over and started flying upside down with an unimpressed look. "Say Sam, does the S in S Team stand for speed or slowpokes?"

Sam Speed had had all the insults and taunts he could handle, and he sped up his car to the point where in a few seconds it would overtake us. "Hah! The only way you can beat me now is if you go faster than the speed of sound!" I heard him jeer.

Challenge accepted.

I could see the mach cone beginning to form around me and felt my cheeks being pulled back by the speed, and grabbed Rainbow's hoof. "Hold on 'cause we are out of here!" I busted through the sound barrier for the second time I could remember and created another Sonic Boom, letting the expanding blue ring I left behind and the aftershocks confuse the S Team. Rainbow hugged my midsection tight and closed her eyes against the onrush of wind as I jetted into the sky, my speed doubled.

Rainbow's POV

I couldn't help feeling a little jealous at Cobalt being able to do two Sonic Booms in such a short stretch of time while I'd only been able to do one as a filly, but I was glad that he held onto me tightly and didn't let me go.

My face burned though, as I hugged onto him for pure survival. I know it was only because I had to, but holding him in my forelegs made me feel bashful.

As the boost from the Sonic Boom faded, we let each other go and I kept up with him.

"You know, being stuck here until we find our friends and Metal Sonic and the gems of power might not be so bad." Cobalt commented, surprising me. "We've already made some new friends."

I wasn't sure I would've called them friends, but I nodded in agreement. "It could be fun." A sudden feeling of passion suddenly overtook me, and I felt the powerful desire to confess my feelings to him. "Cobalt, I–"

My sentence cut off into a pained screech as a thunderclap shook the stormy night sky above us, and my body was wracked with pain.

Cobalt's POV

I was horrified as a lightning bolt that hadn't been triggered by anypony zapped down from the storm clouds and struck Rainbow, leaving her pelt and mane scorched with electricity in a few places and unconscious. This was something we just didn't have to worry about in Equestria, and I was completely unprepared for. She let out one pained scream and then spiraled down to earth.

I dived after her, afraid I might not be able to catch her since we were so close to the ground, and I was right, as I only managed to brush her tail with my right forehoof before she crashed into a rectangular ditch filled with water behind a fancy looking house and sank.

I had about two seconds to think two thoughts before I too hit the water, and I got that done.

#1: Wait, water?

#2: Oh crap I can't swim!

I sank into the black depths and lost consciousness.

IN CANTERLOT

Third Person POV Again

Princess Luna sat on the balcony of her room staring up at the moon she had raised and the stars surrounding it with a despondent feeling aching in her heart.

Her sister knocked politely on her bedroom door, having sensed an unusual amount of sadness emanating from the Princess of the Night's chamber.

"You may come in." Luna called, turning and preparing for a talk.

"Hello sister. Are you sad about anything?" Celestia asked concernedly.

Luna gave a curtly shook her head no.

"Worried?"

Luna growled. "Are you simply going to run through thy list of negative emotions, sister?"

"Is this about Cobalt Spikes?" Princess Celestia's voice was soft, remembering with what feeling Luna had told her about the dream she and Cobalt had shared. "Are you upset with him?"

"N-not upset."

"You can tell me what you feel, sister. Your secret will be safe with me."

"I like him!" Luna burst out. "I'm worried that he may not return!" she turned away dejectedly, her face burning in shame. "There, I have said it. Laugh all you want."

"I-I'm sorry." Celestia murmured, unsure of what to say, what with her own misgivings about the amnesiac pegasus who had odd connections with chaos, the most dangerous force in Equestria. "I don't know that I can help you. This is one issue that you must resolve on your own."

**Wow, I ****_do_**** like to do cliffhangers, don't I? This concludes part one of the two-part Dimension X thing. I decided it might be fun to put in a one sided Luna x Cobalt thing just to create extra tension between the characters.**

**So, review, follow, favorite, and all that. I'm out.**


	3. Dimension X Part 2

**I've got nothing to say, so let's get to it.**

Cobalt's POV

I sank like a rock to the bottom of the pit alongside my companion, Rainbow Dash. I figured that in her unconscious and injured state, she couldn't hold out for as long as I could, so with all my strength I kicked off the bottom of the pit and shoved her up through the water, watching as she vanished over the side like something had grabbed her. Maybe it was one of those marshmallows.

Thinking that thought made me giggle light-headedly, losing precious air in the process. I clapped a hoof over my mouth and desperately looked around for a way out, but after a while that started to feel like a delusional hope. How long had I been down here? A few minutes? A few days? I began to feel loopy, like I'd had too much of Applejack's hard apple cider. The darkness pressed around the edges of my vision, and I felt strangely at peace. A figure broke the surface and started to swim down toward me as my vision started to fade.

Rainbow Dash's POV

THIRTY SECONDS EARLIER

I slowly regained consciousness after pulling myself to shore, coughing up a mixture of blood and water. I remembered everything up till the point I was knocked out, and judging from the scorch marks blemishing my pelt, I'd been struck by lightning.

A few moments later I realized that my friend wasn't next to me, and when I saw the pit full of water next to me the fleeting unconscious memories after I'd been struck flooded back to me.

I choked on the water/blood I was vomiting up. _Cobalt's in the water!_

I heard footsteps coming from the fancy house behind me, and whipped around to see one of those marshmallows running up to me. "Are you okay?" it asked.

I was too stressed at the moment to feel any mistrust, so since I wasn't really able to talk because I was hacking on water and blood, I choked out, "Help…" and pointed at the water.

Cobalt's POV

BACK TO THE PRESENT

I smiled at the marshmallow swimming down toward me. "Don't worry, it's peaceful down here." I tried to say, but ended up making bubbles instead. _Pinkie would approve_. I thought, my lack of oxygen making my thoughts incoherent and silly, then blacked out as the marshmallow grabbed my foreleg and began to pull me toward the surface.

Rainbow Dash's POV

The marshmallow pulled Cobalt out of the pit and set him by the side of it.

"No." I muttered, pulling myself closer to his lifeless form. "No, no, no!" I checked his neck for a pulse, and was relieved when I felt one, but then I was horrified as it started to fade.

"C-can we help him?" the marshmallow asked worriedly. "I don't know how to–"

"I do." I interrupted, feeling steely cold determination force its way through my sorrow. "The only thing to do is mouth to mouth." So, placing my doubts aside, I slowly leaned down and placed my mouth against Cobalt's.

Oh sweet Celestia it was bliss. It wasn't an official kiss, so it didn't count for anything, and also it was for lifesaving purposes only, but nothing could describe how happy it made me feel.

I drew back and started pushing on his chest causing him to spit up water and regain consciousness. As his emerald green eyes began to flit open, I fought the urge to kiss him in joy, and instead hugged him tightly.

Cobalt's POV

Can you imagine how confused I was waking up with my crush staring down at me with mushy eyes?

No. Let's just tell it how it is. Unless you've woken up in my shoes before you can't imagine my confusion.

She pulled me in for a hug as I put two and two together. I was sitting in a puddle of water I'd spit up, and she was standing over me. Well crap, you can guess what happened. But the weirdest thing was, I didn't have a problem with it. "Um, hi."

"Hey, blue blur." She murmured.

"Um, if I'm not interrupting anything," the marshmallow began causing us to blush and for her to push me away.

"Nope. Nothing." She giggled, obviously still high from the unplanned mouth to mouth.

"Carry on." I added.

Well, since I haven't included a description of this particular marshmallow yet, I guess I will. He… I guess it was a he… was obviously still a child, evident from the differing facial structure from the others we'd seen in the road intersection. He had orange-ish hair and a tan skin tone, and was wearing what could most likely be described as pajamas.

There. That's done.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, we're good. What's your name?" I asked.

"I'm Chris. Who, and what, are you?"

"I'm Rainbow Dash, second fastest pegasus pony in Equestria!" Rainbow answered, letting her pride take lead, as usual. She seemed to try to fly, but flinched in pain and sat back down. I made a mental note to check on her later.

"I'm Cobalt Spikes." I contributed. "The _first_ fastest pegasus pony in Equestria, and before you ask, Equestria is another dimension. Also I have amnesia."

"Uh huh." Chris nodded slowly, obviously having a little trouble taking this in. "So you're horses with wings."

"Pegasus ponies. Get it right, sheesh!" Rainbow facehooved. "Does nopony here know about ponies?"

"Um, Dashie?" I put a hoof on her shoulder. "I don't think they do."

"Okay, this is seriously against the rules, but you guys don't look dangerous, and you seem tired and half dead, so if you want to, I can let you stay the night here." Chris added.

Half of me screamed in aching and tiredness, but my other half was still filled with mistrust. After a few seconds of intense mental battle, my tired side won out. "Thank you so much!"

A few moments later, Rainbow gave a curt nod of her agreement.

LATER

Chris lent us a spare bedroom. After bidding us goodnight, he left for his chambers.

"Oh man, seriously long day." Rainbow groaned, slumping down on one of the beds.

"Night, you mean." I recalled that it had been only half a night since we'd gotten here. "So, we've got to find our friends, find our gems of power, and beat Metal Sonic." I listed. "We've got our work cut out for us, eh?"

"Yeah." As she spoke, I noticed how she kept grimacing every time she tried to move her wings.

I stepped forward. "Here, can I help–" she flinched and drew away as I tried to get a closer look. "Hey! Hooves off!"

I backed off a bit. "Sorry."

She sighed, lowering her head. "No, it's my fault. You wouldn't know too much about pegasus anatomy with your amnesia, would you? Wings are extremely sensitive to pegasi, that's why when you break or hurt them, it feels like you've been dunked in a pit of lava." She explained. "But also, our wings are linked directly to emotions. So if a male pegasus touches a female's wings, we get a bit… turned on."

"Oh." I suddenly understood, and things that had happened with my wings made a lot more sense, such as that time when Twilight was staring at me and they extended.

"Look, if you're just checking if they're all right, I can do that on my own, so don't worry." She gave a tiny smile.

I yawned. "Fair enough." I slumped down on the other bed and was out like a light instantly.

Rainbow Dash's POV

I completely understand Cobalt's motives, and it wasn't for anything else but him caring about me. It was simply like the mouth to mouth. Not aiming for anything else.

But I also can't help how I reacted. Natural reflexes just can't be beat by free will sometimes.

Smirking at how weird and awkward this night had gotten, I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. It was hard for me, since I was used to sleeping on a cloud, the softest thing in existence, but eventually I managed to do it.

IN THE DREAM KINGDOM

I opened my eyes, expecting to see the same room I'd fallen asleep in. Well, that didn't exactly happen. I came into a sort of dream consciousness in Canterlot. Everything seemed frozen in time, which was creepy enough if the whole city wasn't populated with tons of ponies who had been frozen doing their daily jobs and ended up stuck in a reverse time matrix.

"Hello?" I called, getting even more freaked as… uh… no time… went on. "Anypony?" when I didn't get an answer I decided to explore a little. At mach speeds, of course.

I zipped through the streets looking for any sign of life, but everypony remained frozen. Eventually staring at nopony moving for a while got me creeped enough to flee town for a few minutes. I flew to the edges of the city and into the surrounding woods. No birdsong interrupted the seemingly perpetual silence, but I started feeling warmth on one side, and began to wonder if this had something to do why I was here. I flew toward the heat and shocked myself as I saw the collapsed figure of Cobalt lying in a clearing.

After today I was not going to let something else happen to him, and so I landed and felt for a pulse like I had done by the pool. I felt one, but that didn't help me any as he should've been frozen like everypony else. As I sat next to him, his eyes snapped open and I jumped back.

"Tails!" he gasped, his energy as intense as if he was being pursued by a horde of rabid parasprites, which shocked the hay out of me.

"Cobalt?" I asked. "What's going on? Where are we?"

He didn't seem to hear me, and his gaze passed right through me like I wasn't there. Then I came to a horrible realization. I wasn't there.

This was the first snippet of memory Cobalt had forged after he'd lost his previous memory.

"Whoa, my head feels weird." Past Cobalt muttered, putting a hoof to his head. "Well, never mind that I guess. I'd better go through my checklist. Name." he smiled for the first time I'd seen since he'd woken up. "Heh, if I can't remember this one then I'm in a lot of trouble." He held up a hoof and inhaled like he was about to answer, then gave a look most accurately described as a poker face. "Oh crap."

I blacked out, and when I came to again, I was standing beside Cobalt as he stood in front of a random Canterlot mare, now in motion again. "And then I realized that I was a horse with wings. Do you happen to know where the leader of this place lives?" he asked. The mare's expression was easily readable. _Psycho killer. Gotta run._ She pointed slowly at a castle to my right, and then ran off screaming.

Cobalt raised an eyebrow. "Thank you!" he called confusedly after her. "Friendly, aren't they?" he muttered under his breath, almost making me think he was addressing me, but then I realized it was to himself.

My vision went dead again, and when stuff came into my vision again, we were standing in front of the palace facing a guard.

"For the last time, I have no memory!" Cobalt argued. "All I know is that I was pretty much dumped into the middle of life in this city and for some reason I'm convinced I'm a hedgehog. I mean really! All I want is to see the pony who a guy I met said was in charge of this wacko place!"

The guard, obviously nervous, let Cobalt pass into the palace and as he disappeared from my sight time froze again.

"Thou hast seen what needs to be seen, but the question is how thou will use this information." A voice sounded from behind me and I whirled around to see Princess Luna stepping forward behind me.

"Princess Luna!" I bowed respectfully, knowing that she was in my dream because of her job.

"No need for thy over-respect, Rainbow Dash."

"Sorry." I apologized. "Um, what do you mean by what I've seen?"

"I do not know myself, but if thy dream has brought thou to this place, then it must be relevant." Luna smiled as I looked down at my hooves and saw they were fading. I must have been waking up. "Please give my regards to Cobalt, if it is convenient for you." Luna added, seemingly a little embarrassed as she said so. For a second I wondered why, but dismissing it was much easier than wondering.

I opened my eyes back in the marshmallow's guest room, yawning. Cobalt wasn't up yet, so I decided to clean myself up a little using the sink built into the wall.

Staring into the mirror, I hardly recognized the pony I saw reflected. "Do I really look like that?" I murmured. I had dark circles under my eyes, and my face was covered with scorch marks and scratches, and my whole body was covered with the same plus numerous bruises.

That wasn't going to do.

A FEW MINUTES LATER

I finished washing as I heard Cobalt stirring. He looked up and his jaw fell open when he saw me. "Whoa, you look… awesome!" he complimented. "Did you clean up already?"

"Uh huh." I confirmed with a nod, glad that he had noticed. I'd removed most of the visible dirt streaks and washed my mane and tail, improving my look somewhat.

"It was pretty nice of that marshmallow to let us stay. Do you think maybe they're not all bad?" he asked.

"Oh, sure, I never thought that originally." I answered. _But I'm more curious about my dream_.

Cobalt's POV

Rainbow looked absolutely stunning. That was the only way to describe it. She literally looked better than she usually did, but I guess that could've been my perception of it.

But down to business. We still had to get all the things I stated last night done, and also see if we'd be staying with the marshmallow. Either way, I got a really bad feeling that we probably wouldn't be seeing Equestria for a while.

**Yep. I got plot inspiration, and realized that if I'm going to do one chapter a day this Thanksgiving Break (minus tomorrow of course), I was going to have to make this three parts instead of two. So here you go and come back for more on Friday or Saturday!**


	4. Dimension X Part 3

**Okay, Werewolf Lover 99. NO. Just NO. So please STOP asking. On another note, here's the finale of the Dimension X three parter. Don't get me wrong, I'm going to continue this to at least ten chapters, but for Dimension X, I'm going to end it in this chapter (This corresponds to episodes 1 and 2 of Sonic X).**

Cobalt's POV

I trotted down the stairs and greeted the marshmallow named Chris. "Hi. Thanks for letting us stay."

He'd changed into wear around clothes that were red, white, and yellow and was sitting on a couch. "No problem. I'm sure that the government is after you, so it's the least I can do. I don't think you want to be dissected."

I nearly vomited up the little I had in my stomach. "Di-_WHAT_?"

"Dissection."

"No, I know what it means, but why?"

"You're too fast to be a life form from here, and they probably think you're an alien." Chris explained. "And plus, horses don't talk around here."

"Pegasus. Ponies." My companion Rainbow Dash flew down from upstairs and landed next to me, looking annoyed. "Get it right."

"Sorry." Chris apologized. "It's just so cool that I'm talking to a real live pegasus!"

Yep, we're pegasi. And we're from another dimension. Mind blown yet? Eat on this. Rainbow and I and our friends decided to travel to this dimension to chase after an insane robot that stole one of these things called chaos emeralds and came here. I'm Cobalt Spikes, amnesiac. I work as a weather pony for the weather council back in my home dimension of Equestria.

My stomach growled in complaint, making me realize that I hadn't eaten for a whole day. I blushed. "Uh…"

"Oh!" Chris facehooved with his open fingered… hand, I think it's called. A facepalm. "Duh, you must be hungry! I'll go and get something for you to eat." He jogged off into another room.

Rainbow looked even more thrilled at the prospect of food than I felt, and I remembered that her stomach must have shrunk immensely from that period when she was starving herself when we were separated. I made another mental note to give her some of whatever I got.

"Say, do you want to go out on the balcony?" I suggested, seeing that there was one.

"Sure." She agreed, smiling warmly. "I'd like that." We walked onto the balcony and she fluttered into the sky, obviously feeling better, gathering a few clouds together, an ability that was clearly not limited by this dimension. She quickly formed them into a solid platform that could be stood on even by non-pegasi. Pushing it downward to the level of the balcony, she lay down on it and patted the area next to her. "Come on."

I obliged, and lay on my back next to her, basking in the warmth of the sun and the happiness at being with my friend. I wrapped my foreleg around her neck and she put her head on my shoulder. I considered confessing at that exact moment, but Chris calling for us interrupted my thoughts. "Cobalt! Rainbow Dash!"

"Yeah?" I asked, flying back onto the balcony and letting Rainbow follow.

Chris held up two dishes full of pulled grass from the lawn. "I looked on the Internet and it said that horses love grass."

My stomach lurched. "_Grass_?" behind me Rainbow turned and threw up into the cloud. That was mildly revolting, but not as much as the prospect of grass. "Oh, no way. The last time I ate that stuff I regretted it."

"I could get you some horse feed instead if you'd like." Chris offered, obviously taken aback at how we reacted to grass.

Rainbow wiped her mouth. "No way! Come on, Cobalt, we can find our own food!" she stretched her wings out and flapped off, I following at a distance.

"Wait! Come back!" Chris called after us.

ONE TITLE SEQUENCE LATER

We were back at Chris' dwelling, having found some abandoned nachos that we were sharing. He'd shown us a magic light box that played images and sound and we were currently watching what seemed like a self-reading notice board with more marshmallows telling it. Chris called it _the news_.

"Now here is a special report on the supersonic disturbances that terrorized downtown Station Square last night." One of the female marshmallows who narrated the news announced. The scene cut to a scientific looking guy with a monkey in his arms.

"It is absolutely impossible that any living thing could move that fast. These beings are obviously robots." He explained.

"Hah, we're famous!" I chuckled.

"What are robots?" Rainbow asked Chris.

"Robots are mechanical creations powered by engines or electricity, usually made of metal." Chris informed her.

"Metal." I realized. "You don't suppose…" I linked two and two together. Metal Sonic was a robot. That explained a lot.

"I'm mad about them thinking we're robots." Rainbow fumed. "I mean, do I look like I'm made of metal?"

"No." Chris and I said at the same time.

Rainbow Dash's POV

Robots? Who do these marshmallows think they are? Ah, whatever. What happened next is much more interesting.

"Hey Chris!" an older marshmallow in a lab coat walked around the corner. "Did you see the news announcement about those robot ponies flying around downtown last night?"

For one I was glad that somepony finally named us right, but I was also surprised there was somepony else living in this house. I'd thought Chris was home alone.

"Man, if I could find one of them–" the old man cut off as he laid eyes on us sitting right in front of him.

"Hi." Cobalt said.

Chris tried to stuff both Cobalt and I under couch pillows, which wasn't hard as when curled up we were kind of small in comparison to the marshmallow sized stuff, but that proved ineffective as neither of us wanted to be stuffed under pillows and struggled until we were free.

The old man immediately gasped in excitement and pulled out a screwdriver. He picked up Cobalt and started trying to find something to unscrew on him. "I must find out how it works!"

"Gah!" Cobalt yelled, twisting and turning to try to get away. "Stop it, that tickles!"

"Bwahahaha!" I laughed, finding the situation hilarious. I know he would probably kill me later, but it was just too funny.

Cobalt eventually struggled and leaped away from the crazy old man with a mutinous look on his face as he glared at me.

"Hold still!" the old marshmallow growled.

"Uncle Chuck, stop!" Chris held his grandpa back. "They're not robots!"

"We're not." I put in helpfully.

Cobalt glared harder. "Gee, thanks. You couldn't have told him that earlier?"

I grinned sheepishly. "Well, I could've."

"Wait." Mister Uncle Chuck froze. "You mean to tell me that these are biological entities capable of reaching sonic speeds?"

"Well, _I_ am." Cobalt muttered. "I don't know about you, Rainbow."

I glared harder than he ever could, as I'm the queen of evil eyes. "You've heard my story a million times and you know it!"

He shrugged. "'Kay. Whatever you say." I gave up with an exasperated sigh and decided to deal with him later.

"This is incredible!" Chuck exclaimed, a wide grin stretching across his face. "I must inform the government and–"

"NO!" Cobalt shouted with so much intensity that Chuck dropped his screwdriver. "I don't wanna be dissected! It hurts!"

I felt sick, like I was gonna throw up again. "D-dissected?"

Cobalt hugged me protectively with his wing. "Don't worry. I won't let them hurt you."

"Thanks." I blushed, embarrassed that I looked like I needed protection. "I-I mean, get offa me!" I shoved him away.

Chris and Chuck watched this exchange obviously stunned. "You two like each other, don't you?" Chris asked.

"W-what?" Cobalt stammered, blushing harder than I was. "No!"

"You're insightful, Chris." Chuck commented. "They do."

I figured it wasn't much use arguing, and I guess Cobalt understood that too since he didn't even try to persuade them otherwise besides his first attempt.

Then another breaking news announcement came over the magic box identified as a TV. "There has been another biological entity identified in Station Square as seen in this video footage captured by an anonymous source." A male marshmallow announced.

The view switched to a blurry video clip of a pale yellow pony we recognized and her pet cowering on top of a high billboard.

"Fluttershy!" I gasped, watching her plead for mercy with the marshmallows surrounding her on all sides. "Crap! She must have flown up there for a better view and been too afraid to fly down!"

"Please, don't hurt us!" she begged, bursting into scared tears. "We don't mean any harm!"

It switched back to he newsroom. "We've been informed that the two have been taken into government custody for careful research at Area 99." The announcer informed us.

"Area 99! That's one of the most closely guarded places on earth!" Chris exclaimed, his eyes widening. "They must really find this Shutterfly to be a threat!"

"She's not, it's Fluttershy, and we're busting her out!" I growled, extending my wings to take off. "Come on Cobalt!" We shot off as two colored missiles.

"Wait, do you even know where you're going?" Chris yelled after us. We realized our mistake and stopped immediately, turning around and dashing back.

I scratched behind my head. "Um, hehe, sorry."

LATER

Cobalt's POV

"Are you all set?" Chris asked, hooking up a computer link to the spy gear eyepieces his grandpa had invented and gave to Rainbow and I in what was called a garage, but just looked like stables for these cars. I still thought what they called technology was some form of magic, but it was seriously cool anyway.

"I think so." I said, tapping the thing. "Are you sure we can still fly fast like this?"

"Yes, and better than that, we can see everything you see." Chuck answered for him. "Look at the computer screen."

I saw the computer screen, and saw the computer screen, and saw the computer screen, and it continued until the frames became too small to see. "Whoa."

"Okay dude, grab on and we'll take you there." Rainbow extended a hoof to Chris.

"Oh no." Chuck argued, pulling something out of his pocket and pressing a button on it. His car roared to life next to us, scaring the heck out of me. "I'm coming too. Hop in!"

I decided I liked this old marshmallow's sense for adventure and saluted. "Yes sir!"

LATER

"Say Chuck?" I asked over the roar of the wind and motor from the speeding car. "Do you think we can hop off here?"

"Sure, go for it!" he called back. "But I seriously doubt you can keep up with–" I proved him wrong by backflipping out of the car, followed by Rainbow. Rocketing down the street, we got to the gates of this so called 'most guarded area on earth' and waited impatiently for them to come on the sound emitter attached to the eyepiece.

Rainbow Dash's POV

Finally, _finally_ we got our orders. I don't like taking blind orders from anypony more than you all, but it was the best chance we had.

"_Okay, so there's an air vent pipe sticking out of the top of the gate, correct?_" Chuck's voice broadcasted from the sound emitter straight into my ear.

"Yeah." I whispered in response.

"_Good. If you fly down that, you'll reach a minimum-security hallway that should lead to the research rooms they hold the subjects in._"

"Roger." Cobalt said before I could get anything out. We flapped up to the top of the gate, and one at a time tucked our wings and slid down the tunnel. I went first, my long tail softening the inevitable friction that would've been generated. Cobalt wasn't so lucky with his shorter tail.

"Oh man." He complained, rubbing his rear in pain. "It feels like I've got skid marks on my flank!"

I couldn't withhold a small giggle of amusement and gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder. "Get over it, blue blur."

We walked down the pipe, unable to do much more than that, and occasionally had to stand our ground against onrushes of fierce air. Eventually we reached the end of the pipe way and kicked out a vent into a hallway. Immediately I grabbed Cobalt and pushed both of us against a wall. "Minimum-security, huh?" I muttered through gritted teeth.

Both the walls were lined with cameras that looked back and forth along the hallway. I guess this really was the most guarded place on earth if this was minimum.

"_Bzzt… can't hold… too much longer… bzzt… too powerful… not gonna… on your own… go get your friend! Bzzt._" I heard Chris say with great difficulty over the sound emitter. Their end must have gotten jacked up by the Area 99 tech defense. We were stranded in the most guarded place on earth with no help.

"What do we do?" I hissed, tensing as a camera almost focused in on us.

"Hang on, I've got a plan." Cobalt murmured. He noted the camera surveillance patterns for a second then zipped across the hall to the other side. He gave me a look that clearly said, 'follow my lead'.

Still uneasy, I shot after his zigzag pattern down the hallway. It was almost deadly, as a camera zapped a fly buzzing around with a laser cannon mounted on the side of the camera.

"_Intruder located._" A monotonous female voice projected from everywhere at once. "_Defense protocol activated._"

"What does that mean?" I asked, getting extremely nervous.

Some of Cobalt's brilliant insight blossomed forth at that moment. "It means they fire on movement! FLY!" he screamed.

Needless to say, we jetted out of that hallway before anything else could go wrong. Eventually after hiding in the nearest broom closet for what seemed like hours but was in any probability only minutes, the sirens died down.

"I think we're good." I breathed.

ELSEWHERE IN THE BASE

Fluttershy's POV

Oh, hi, I-I'm Fluttershy. I'm in a clear tube at the moment where creatures that call themselves humans are doing research on me and my best friend Angel Bunny. I mean, um, besides my other best friends of course.

"Please, just leave us alone." I whimpered, completely scared out of my mind as a metal device scanned me.

"I don't get it." I heard a human female say, muffled through the tube. "The scans show completely biological results, but nothing exists like this on earth. Besides the rabbit." She added.

I took time away from being scared to comfort Angel, who was both shivering and kicking the tube angrily at the same time.

"It's okay, Angel. We'll get out of here and it'll be all fine." I reassured him, not sure if I was as much trying to comfort him as I was the both of us. "Cobalt Spikes and Rainbow Dash will save us." I patted his head. "They always help when we need it."

BACK WITH OUR HEROES

Cobalt's POV

We peered around a corner into a long hallway, and saw one of those sciencey looking marshallows put an eye in front of a scanner. It beeped and flashed a green light, and a door slid open. He entered and it closed behind him.

"Cool." Rainbow muttered, trotting up to the device. There weren't any security cameras here. "I wonder if I…" she put her eye up to the scanner like the marshmallow had. It beeped again, but only flashed red.

"_Non biological eye color identified. Please present proper eye code for entry._" It monotoned.

"What? What's wrong with pink eyes?" Rainbow complained, obviously upset.

"Nothing at all." I patted her on the back and grinned. "Though there's a much simpler way to do this." I turned and bucked the scanner as hard as I could. It made dying electrical noises and flashed green before sparking randomly. The door slid open.

Well, I can't say I wasn't surprised at what I saw. Fluttershy and Angel were trapped in a tube made of glass, and tons of computers flashed around it, registering colorful, wire framed images of Fluttershy and Angel, who were currently either struggling or cowering against the tube. Marshmallows in lab coats stopped whatever they were doing and stared at us.

"Um, hi." I said awkwardly. "Uh, we're here for our friend, so we can do this the easy way or the hard way."

"Easy way is best." Rainbow added, extending her wings to be ready for a fight. I did the same.

One of the marshmallows slowly pressed a button and carefully said. "Security, there are more of them."

"Hard way then." I muttered, taking off and bucking the glass surrounding Fluttershy and Angel, breaking it into tiny shards. Most of the marshmallows fled.

Fluttershy gave me a huge hug. "Oh, thank you so, so much! It's so scary here!"

"Hey, I helped too." Rainbow broke into the hug and we all embraced each other in happy reunion. But it didn't last long, as an explosion shook the building and alarms blared.

"What the?" I began, but then we were forced to grab Fluttershy and Angel and fly as fast as we could down narrow hallways as marshmallows with handheld laser cannons. We tried to go back the way we came, but that was blocked out already, so we backtracked and tried another hallway.

Of course there were the laser cameras, but as I watched, they emitted purple sparks and started moving around spastically.

"Wow, I guess good things happen around you two." Fluttershy said, having seen this weird thing. She spoke a moment too soon, though, as doors started closing in front of us.

"Hang on!" I yelled, having had a crazy, insane idea. "Slide!" I tucked my wings into a barrel roll, somehow not clipping my wings or killing Fluttershy as I slid under the door, adventurer style. I used the roll to pull back up and slam a button, reopening the door for Rainbow and Angel.

"Thanks!" Rainbow gasped for air while Angel saluted respectfully at my daring.

A door was to our left, so we busted through that and came to a spiral staircase with more spastic cameras shooting lasers everywhere. One shot right in front of us and shot a line of nothing in the staircase.

I gave an impressed whistle. "I don't favor anypony's chances against one of those."

"Stop admiring and start flying!" Rainbow screamed as a laser nearly took her head off.

"Don't fly, it's easier to dodge on the ground!" I advised, pulling Fluttershy out of harm's way and galloping up the stairs.

We managed to make it all the way to the top, but couldn't kick out the vent. I cursed in anger. "We're doomed!"

Rainbow Dash's POV

Okay, if Cobalt didn't have any hope or cheer left, then all was lost. I swear if he had been an element he would've been hope. Fluttershy nearly burst into tears again while I slumped down on the stairs. "That's it. We're done for."

Cobalt smiled and looked up. "Don't give up so soon."

I shifted my gaze glumly upward, but perked up soon after as the vent shimmered purple and was pried open. Cobalt laughed in sheer relief. "Ladies and rabbits first!" Fluttershy, Angel, and I exited into the clear, fresh air, followed by Cobalt. A motor noise sounded from above.

"Hi guys!" A voice called over the noise. We looked up and saw Twilight waving down at us from a lavender metal bird. "I 'borrowed' one of their helicopter planes and painted it purple! Hop in!"

LATER

We'd gotten back to Chris' house with the heli-plane, and it hadn't proved too hard to land with Twilight's magic helping. Chris and Chuck met up with us there. We were all congregated in the garage, Twilight and Chuck were talking science/magic, and we were introducing Fluttershy to Chris and vice-versa.

"Um, nice to meet you Chris." Fluttershy said shyly.

"Hi, it's great to meet you too."

I zoned and started listening to Twilight and Chuck's conversation. I'm pretty sure it went like this:

Chuck: So you can really do magic?

Twilight: Yeah.

Chuck: Show me.

Twilight: Okay (levitated a wrench).

Chuck: Wow! Do you mind if I run a few non-harmful tests later?

Twilight: (Laughing) Not at all, but I doubt you'll find anything.

I couldn't stand any more of this boring talk anymore, so I preoccupied myself by running through my task list. We had to find our friends, find Metal Sonic, kick his robotic butt, and get the gems of power back.

That reminded me. "Hey Twilight!"

She turned toward me. "Yeah?"

"Do you still have your element?"

Twilight's face clouded with worry. "No, it just disappeared all of a sudden."

"Mine's gone too." Fluttershy whispered. Meanwhile on the floor, Angel facepalmed.

"Well, we all lost 'em then." Cobalt affirmed. "And now we've gotta find 'em."

Without a second thought, I held my foreleg out into the air. "Team pact?"

Cobalt stuck his foreleg so that it was near mine in an imaginary circle. "Team pact."

Twilight trotted over and put her hoof in the circle too. "I'm in."

Chris and Chuck both put a hand in our imaginary circle. "We'll help too." Chuck said.

Angel sprang up and clung on to my foreleg to show he was in and to avoid falling.

Fluttershy was the last to join and seemed hesitant. "Uh… um…" after a few seconds of waiting, she held out her foreleg and put her hoof in the circle. "Go team?"

ELSEWHERE

Third person POV

Metal Sonic beeped and for a moment his eyes flashed indecipherable text.

"_BZZT… TARGET DETECTED… EXECUTING PLAN_ EGGMAN." His eyes flashed and he started making horrific, insane laughing.

**Ooh. Ominous, right? Tune in next week for the next chapter.**


	5. EGGMAN

**Me: Hi.**

**Jeffery the Cat: 'Sup.**

**Me: Just thought I'd put this dude in here because he's epic. I made him with my imagination (cue Spongebob imagination box reference). He looks like a Sonic character ripoff but isn't because I made him before I knew about Sonic.**

**… I was bored.**

**Jeffery: HEY!**

Cobalt Spikes was resting on a cloud along with his friend Rainbow Dash above the Thorndyke residence. He looked toward her. "I love this. It's just so peaceful here sometimes."

They heard a car horn start blaring in the distance. "_Sometimes_ is the key word." Rainbow sighed.

ELSEWHERE, IN A SEWER

A female pink pony bounced along in an underground pipe. "Sewers are just so stinky! Who would have known that things could get so smelly with these human's waste? What's up with humans anyway? Hands! Oh wow is that a sewer rat?!"

She was quieted as another orange pony with a cowboy hat put a hoof over her mouth. "Pinkie, for the sake of my sanity, put a sock in it, will ya?" the orange pony said with a country accent.

"Sure will, Applejack!" Pinkie grinned hugely.

ONE TITLE SEQUENCE LATER (**USE THE ONE IN THE COMMENTS**)

"So why are we here?" Cobalt asked, the four ponies and the humans that knew about them being congregated in Chris Thorndyke's room. He reclined on a beanbag.

"To discuss finding the chaos emeralds and elements." Twilight Sparkle, a lavender unicorn informed him. She used her magic to make a few checklists and pass them out. "Now we have the two emeralds and six elements on here, and it's like a scavenger–"

"Really Twilight?" Rainbow asked, tossing her sheet of paper over her shoulder. "Checklists? Scavenger hunts? What are we, nine years old?"

"Um, not to be rude, Twilight, but I have to agree with Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy squeaked, fearing an angry recoil.

"Yeah, we know our objective." Cobalt narrowed his eyes. "Kick robot flank and find these things."

"You might do well as a children's teacher, Twilight." Chuck advised, seeing the possibilities.

"Yeah, some of the kids in the fourth grade would love that kind of thing." Chris nodded.

"Thanks, but no thanks." Twilight smiled a little bit. "But we're getting of topic. "We need to figure out _how _to find these things. Chuck and I have been working on a way to combine my tracking magic and the different energy signals from the elements and emeralds to make a sort of hoofheld radar."

"Impressive." Cobalt nodded. "But how soon can we make this thing?"

"As soon as we find one of either type of gem." Chuck explained. "We have to have a sample first."

"That's, um, good." Fluttershy whispered. "But we have to find one first though, which might take more than a week."

"In that case, let the two fastest things alive assist!" Rainbow brohoofed with Cobalt and the two took off out the open window.

"Will they be okay?" Chris asked worriedly.

"Oh sure." Twilight smiled. "Though they might get a little… sidetracked."

"Master Chris? Master Chuck? Are you in there?" a foreign accented voice asked from outside the door, causing the four to stiffen.

"That's Ella!" Chuck hissed to the ponies. "Quick, blend!" Fluttershy and Twilight got the message and quickly plastered stupid smiles on their faces, slumping lifelessly against the side of the bed to blend in with the other stuffed animals just as the doorknob turned and Ella came in.

She was a slightly overweight, darker skin toned woman in a blue dress with a huge smile on her face. "Hello!" she said. "Are you playing with master Chris, master Chuck?"

"Um, yeah, Ella." Chuck excused himself from any further judgment.

"You know that it is time for your weekly swimming exercise, master Chuck. You should be at the adult pool by now." Ella corralled him out the door. "Master Chris, are you having fun?"

"Yes, Ella!" Chris put a fake grin on his face._ Please go away._ He thought, noticing how close the two ponies seemed to having to blink.

"What are these?" Ella asked, reaching down and picking up Twilight. Twilight kept the dumb, lifeless look on her face. "Are they yours? They seem kind of girly."

"Um, they're foreign. All the rage in Canada. M-my mom sent them." Chris stammered. Ella stared at Twilight, and the lavender unicorn couldn't help focusing her vision on the human. Ella cried out and dropped Twilight. "It looked at me!"

Chris laughed; sure they were sunk at this point. "Don't be silly, Ella. It's a stuffed animal, it can't see."

Ella scooped up Fluttershy now. "And I suppose this one can't do the same thing, master Chris?" Fluttershy found herself beginning to sweat in terror, and silently tried to keep her pupils the same size and her wings tucked down.

When nothing else happened, Ella set down Fluttershy and took deep breath so calm herself. "I'm sorry, master Chris. I guess I'm just on edge today." She left the room muttering about possession.

"Oh sweet Celestia that was close." Twilight sighed in relief, standing up again.

"She's scary." Fluttershy shivered.

"We're going to have to be more careful." Chris said thoughtfully. "If they do happen to see you, then act like stuffed animals, got it?"

The ponies nodded.

IN THE CITY

"So, if you were an element, where would you hide?" Rainbow asked Cobalt as they streaked through the city, so fast that nobody could recognize their forms.

"I'd probably go to somewhere nobody would ever think to look." Cobalt guessed. They banked into an alley to stop for a second. "Like that." He gestured to a dumpster. "Shall we?" he offered Rainbow a hoof.

She snorted. "What a gentlecolt. Offering to take your filly into a trash can." She took his hoof and hoisted him in the pile of garbage first. "Get in there."

"Smells like cheese with a hint of barf." Came his voice from inside.

"Cannonball!" Rainbow performed the classic dive into the heap of refuse.

A FEW MINUTES LATER

The ponies' heads popped out of the dumpster. "What do you have so far?" Rainbow asked.

"Fake teeth, a banana peel, and a pair of broken glasses." Cobalt tossed his findings onto the street below. "What about you?"

"Underpants and a weird can that says Aspirin." Cobalt just noticed the tighty whities stuck on top of her head, and busted out laughing.

"What's so funny?" she asked, provoking him to laugh harder. "I don't think they're in here." She growled, angry at not understanding the joke. "Let's move on."

BACK AT THE THORNDYKE'S MANSION

Chris was watching the news again with the two ponies, posing once more as stuffed animals.

"In recent news, there is a–"

Whatever the news anchor had been about to say was cut off by the screen flickering and another announcer coming on. "This is an urgent news announcement. A gigantic robot has appeared downtown with a rotund man piloting it by the name of Eggman. This man has given us three hours to surrender our freedom or he will destroy Station Square. We go live to his confrontation with the mayor."

At this point all three of the viewers were staring intently at the screen.

A flustered looking gray haired man stood in front of a powerful looking robot with a guy inside. The man inside had a big bushy orange moustache and an interestingly designed red suit.

"I-I'm not in a position to hand over the deed to the city, mister Eggman sir." The mayor stammered.

"Then who would I see for that?" the fat man asked menacingly, holding up a button trigger.

"Um, the, the president, sir." The mayor answered.

Chris flipped off the television. "We're going downtown. Now."

"Ooh!" Twilight seemed excited. "We can take my purple helicopter plane!"

LATER, DOWNTOWN

The two ponies and Chris looked down from the helicopter mode of the plane, piloted magically by Twilight, at the scene where the Eggman was terrorizing the citizens. "Where are Cobalt and Rainbow?" Twilight yelled over the noise of the plane.

Fluttershy whispered something unintelligible.

"They'd better get here soon." Chris said.

WITH COBALT AND RAINBOW

"What's with all the screaming?" Cobalt asked, hearing a few terrified yells.

Rainbow shrugged. "I don't know. Wanna check it out?"

"As if you don't know my answer." He grinned. "Let's go!" Their forms turned into trails of their mane color as they hauled flank nearer to the screams. Halfway there, they were stopped by Twilight's purple helicopter plane. "Hey guys!" Twilight yelled.

"Hi Twilight!" Cobalt grinned. "What's the biz over there?"

"Some whacko named Eggman in a giant robot is trying to take over the town!"

Cobalt's eyes widened then narrowed in a period of about two seconds. He clenched his teeth. "I _hate_ that name."

"Why?" Chris asked.

"Amnesia, so I don't know, and we're running out of time!"

"Wait. How do you know?" Rainbow asked.

"Sixth sense or something like that. He's edging on pressing his little button and letting the robot's arsenal rip." Cobalt pantomimed a miniature explosion with his forelegs. "Boom. Kapow."

Twilight looked on a little screen that showed the live TV broadcast and saw Eggman fingering the trigger impatiently. "That's a dead on description. Whoa."

Fluttershy raised her voice only slightly, still unheard.

"What?" Cobalt asked.

"Good luck!" Fluttershy yelled, covering her mouth with a blush. "Sorry." You could read her lips on this last word, but not hear it.

IN A SEWER SYSTEM

"Ah think we've finally found an exit." Applejack tipped up her hat to gain a better view of the porthole. "Ah'll be glad to get outta this here stink pipe."

"Yay!" Pinkie cheered, pulling up the sewer lid from the outside. "Come on, silly filly!"

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "But wait… y'all were just right in here, and now you're out there, but how did ya–"

"Hurry up, Applejack!" Pinkie complained. "I've been waiting for like, five seconds out here!"

Applejack sighed in exasperation. "Ya can work some kind of magic without a horn, can't ya?" she asked as she ascended the ladder rungs.

"Duh! It's called breaking the fourth wall, according to the writer!" Pinkie bounced up and down.

"Ah will never understand ya." Applejack said, climbing out of the stinking sewer. Just as they were replacing the sewer lid, an explosion rattled the ground. "What in tarnation?"

The two ponies hustled outside of the alley the sewer entrance was in, and saw the giant robot holding its arm out in front of it, a building smoking with a crater in the side in its obvious firing path.

"You have tried my patience for too long, mister mayor." A human inside of the robot growled. "Your answer. Now."

"Not so fast, Egg-butt!" they heard Cobalt's voice call out from in the distance, seeing him rocket into the robot, knocking it off balance. Rainbow Dash followed but a few milliseconds later, trying to kick through the shell on the robot. Her hoof connected with a metallic clang, but the rebound made her recoil in pain.

"What's this?" the man inside the robot asked. "An equine with wings? This should be a fun target practice. Missile Wrist, attack!"

ON THE HELI-PLANE

"Could you fire the gatling gun?" Chris yelled over the turmoil.

"No!" Twilight struggled to keep the helicopter steady. "There are too many civilians and we could accidentally shoot Cobalt or Rainbow Dash!"

Fluttershy leaned out of the plane and vomited; she couldn't stand this talk of killing.

BACK ON THE GROUND

The two pegasi busied the robot by leaping onto its punches and making some rude taunts.

Cobalt leaped onto an arm and pulled his lower eyelid down. Rainbow smacked her flank in a 'hit me right here if you can' motion. "Can't hit me ya pile of junk!" Cobalt went as far as to lie down as if he was napping.

Eggman growled and pushed a button, making Missile Wrist shoot a high velocity rocket into the air at the dark blue pegasus stallion. Cobalt barely dodged it; even so its tail fins sliced a cut below his eye. He laughed. "Now we're getting somewhere!"

Out of sheer luck he barrel rolled under another punch, the missile being heat seeking and coming back to hit the punching arm instead of its true target. The arm exploded, the electricity currents guiding it to the battery pack of the robot. Hearing the telltale sound of an electrical explosion about to go off, Eggman pushed a button, saying, "Uh oh. Got to go!" He ejected just in time to avoid being exploded along with his mech. As he hovered off in his clearly labeled Eggmobile, he yelled back at the two pegasi, "I'll get you two nasty blue horses if it's the last thing I do! Curse you, uh…"

"Cobalt Spikes and Rainbow Dash!" Cobalt yelled after him, picking up a stone and chucking it at his retreating Eggmobile. "Here's something for your trip!" If you listened closely, you could hear the clank of rock against metal in the distance and an enraged mad scientist screaming. "I _hate_ those ponies!"

Cobalt and Rainbow exchanged a high hoof and hug, laughing, but there wasn't any time for celebration yet, as they heard very familiar voices screaming behind them.

A FEW SECONDS EARLIER

Now, Applejack and Pinkie didn't just sit still while this battle was being fought, but climbed to the top of the building fired on by Missile Wrist, but when the explosion rocked the earth, they teetered dangerously on the edge of a building, and fell.

PRESENT TIME

The two pegasi whipped around without a second thought, and caught their friends just before they hit the ground. "Hi Applejack." Cobalt said to the mare he'd caught.

"Sup Pinkie?" Rainbow Dash asked her friend.

The two earth pony mares were too shocked to respond, and it was like this as they followed Twilight's helicopter plane back to the Thorndyke residence and until they landed.

**I'm too lazy to write all the rest, so a basic summary is that they got back and everypony met everybody and got settled in.**

**I'm back to my normal update schedule, and thanks for all the support guys. It really helps motivate me. Besides, all I'd be otherwise is some teenager typing on a website.**

**So review, follow, favorite, and see y'all next chapter**

**Jeffery: Wait! Don't stop now; this is the only chapter I'll ever make a cameo in!**

**Me: Tough luck.**


	6. To Be A Hero REWRITTEN

**Hey guys, I noticed the original version didn't meet very good reception, so I rewrote it and removed what I think you all didn't like. ****FORGET EVERYTHING YOU READ IN THE ORIGINAL CHAPTER SIX AS IT DOESN'T APPLY ANYMORE!**** If I didn't delete what you didn't like, comment what it was and I'll ****_re_****-rewrite it.**

**Assume about two weeks have passed since the chapter 5. It is now December 16****th**** in this dimension, and about the same in Ponyville in the ponies' home dimension.**

Cobalt Spikes sat staring at the TV screen in the main room of the Thorndyke's mansion in the middle of the night, one o'clock in the morning to be exact. It was flashing images of a news footage recap of all the ponies' defeats of Eggman, nine in all. As he looked at the news, he heard footsteps near him, and whipped around, his muscles tensing as he prepared for a fight. He immediately relaxed as he saw his cyan companion draw back, her wings shooting out in surprise, startled at his sudden movement.

"Easy, buddy." Rainbow Dash said.

He let out a quiet laugh. "Can't sleep either?"

"Nope." She admitted, grinning sheepishly. "Insomnia rules all."

"Have a seat and enjoy what the human media is calling the X Files then, if that's the case, Dashie." Cobalt slid over on the sofa and patted the area next to him.

Rainbow smirked, tucking her wings back in. "Don't mind if I do." she trotted over and sat next to him, keeping a safe few inches between them. "Whatcha watching?"

"News records of us." He answered, seeing their blurred pictures appear on the screen, and a dangerously accurate hand drawn sketch shortly after. "We need to be more careful. I'm betting that if this is what the public has, then the government has a lot better."

"Don't worry." She closed the gap between them and gave him a one-forelegged hug, making him feel warm and tingly inside. "It'll be fine."

MEANWHILE, IN AREA 99

Rarity was slightly irritated. First these sharply dressed ruffians apprehended her as she was looking for help in the noisy city she'd been dropped into, then they had kept her for three straight weeks in a blank white room quite like the one she was in now. They had said she wasn't a prisoner, but it certainly felt like it.

"Miss Rarity," a man dressed in a sharp black suit with matching super-reflective sunglasses monotoned to the white-coated unicorn sitting across from him in a blank white room. "We understand that you are acquainted with these… ponies." He pushed two file folders over the clean white table. They were labeled File 55806 and File 55807. Rarity opened the first file and found a high-resolution photo of Rainbow Dash in flight. Below were blanks labeled Name, which was labeled Rainbow Dash. The next few blanks were Gender, Height, and a scribbled note that said Marking, with a photo of Rainbow's cutie mark. All these blanks were filled out with scary accuracy. The next blank was filled with records of her exploits.

The first was: _Appeared downtown Station Square_.

The next was: _Broke into Area 99 along with acquaintance (see File 55807) and freed captive_.

The next few were all labeled: _Defeated public enemy 'Eggman' along with acquaintances._

Jarred, Rarity picked up File 55807. It was a similar format with different answers and a different cutie mark, but all still filled with shockingly correct data. The records were the same but it said _see_ _File 55806 _instead of _see File 55807_.

"How did you…?" Rarity trailed off, glancing up at the three agents surrounding her.

"We know lots of things." The same agent that had spoken before answered. "Now you see, Miss Rarity, we have an offer for you." He betrayed no hint of emotion as he said all this. "We have noted your association with these ponies, as they have mentioned you many times, and believe that you may be an inside source of information for us."

"Your point being?" Rarity pressed, still uncomprehending what these agents were asking.

"Our offer is that you work for us here at Area 99 as a field agent." The same said. "If you do so, you will be allowed back with your friends and resume a near normal life."

Rarity wasn't fooled so easily. "And the downside?"

"You must report to us daily on your friends' actions, so that we may learn more about them that they do not choose to reveal to the public."

"And if I choose not to?" Rarity continued.

"We can have five bullets in you before you finish saying the word 'no'."

Rarity was shocked at this answer. "Well it appears you've given me only one option. Very well G.U.N, I accept your offer."

ONE TITLE SEQUENCE LATER

"Wake up." Cobalt heard a familiar voice say, though his eyes remained closed. "Cobalt, Rainbow, wake up." The same voice said, growing impatient. Eventually he guessed whomever the voice belonged to couldn't wait anymore, as it snapped, "Oh for the love of fudge!" and he felt a shower of freezing water wash over him that jerked him out of sleep.

"Gah!" He gasped, struggling to breathe. He looked up in annoyance at certain lavender unicorn that had dumped said bucket of water on him. Twilight Sparkle smirked. "Breakfast is ready, and you don't need showers since you just got them."

"G-gee, th-thanks!" Rainbow, who had fallen asleep next to him and also gotten doused, said sarcastically, shivering.

After drying themselves off, the two speedsters joined the rest at the breakfast table. Cobalt requested his new favorite spice on toast, an odd flavor he discovered he liked after a mix up of salt and said spice: chili powder.

Most of his friends had tried it and spat it out, calling it disgusting. Rainbow made a failed attempt to like it, but the way her face twisted in utter revulsion gave away her true feelings about the flavor.

Cobalt didn't care. He was abnormal anyway.

After gulping down three slices of chili toast, he excused himself to gain some rest on the roof, or as he put it, 'chill on the ceiling.' As he exited, Rainbow's gaze followed him with complete focus.

"Earth to Rainbow Dash." Applejack's voice jerked her out of her thoughts. "Hello?"

"What?" Rainbow snapped, glaring at the orange country earth pony.

"Ah just wanted to ask if ya wanted some extra oatmeal." Applejack replied. "Y'know, it's real obvious that ya like him. Ya get real distracted when he's around."

Rainbow closed her eyes, letting out a sigh. "Sorry for snapping."

"It's okay."

"I'm going to go now."

"All right."

ONE SECOND LATER

Rainbow Dash flew out the window and onto the roof, landing and trotting over to the apparently asleep Cobalt who was basking in the sun. She prodded him in the side, and stepped back a bit as he flailed wildly for a second, shouting, "Don't shoot! It's not my raccoon!" after a few seconds he calmed down, becoming fully awake, and smiled dubiously at Rainbow. "Hi, what's up?"

"Apparently I shouldn't shoot you, as you do not own an imaginary raccoon." She stated slowly, snorting at the ridiculousness of what he'd said.

He flushed. "Did I actually say that out loud?"

Rainbow nodded. "Uh huh."

"Can you forget I ever said that?"

"Uh huh." She repeated

"But I can't!" a high squeaky voice exclaimed, causing the two to look up and Cobalt to scramble to his hooves. Eggman's messenger robot was flying down out of the sky holding a yellow miniature TV. The thing was black, with a jetpack that could be used to hover and had stumpy horns atop its head. Its grin was infuriating.

"Bokkun." Cobalt acknowledged grudgingly. "What's the news from Eggman?"

"Watch the video!" Bokkun grinned.

"Couldn't you just tell us?" Rainbow groaned, hating having to watch these videos every time Eggman had news.

"That's not my job!" the black robot snapped, pressing a button on the television. Eggman's face appeared on the screen.

"_Ah, my dear friends Cobalt Spikes and Rainbow Dash._" Eggman's voice projected. "_I am pleased to inform you that I have given up evil, and the gigantic robot that is probably ravaging Station Square right now is not mine. Goodbye, and thank you for your time._"

The TV blew up as Bokkun hovered away. Looking at each other with faces and manes blackened, the pegasi narrowed their eyes, naturally angry.

"You believe him for a second?" Cobalt growled.

"Not at all." Rainbow returned the tone.

"Blow up his robot?"

"You know it."

ABOUT TEN MINUTES LATER

The elements (minus Rarity, of course), and Cobalt (they'd decided it would be safer for Chris to stay home) headed toward the massive humanoid robot (looks like a bigger version of Big Arm with legs), Rainbow and Cobalt being twin lasers of multicolored and deep blue light, and the rest being in the magically piloted helicopter. Cobalt tried to slam through the glass dome of the 'head', but slammed against it, slowly sliding down with a comical skin on glass noise.

"Aw crap." Rainbow muttered, swooping in and grabbing him out of the way just as the robot swatted its own 'face' to squash him. Somehow the glass didn't shatter on impact.

Rainbow set Cobalt down on top of a building to recuperate. "You okay?"

He rubbed his gut, wincing. "Broken rib, maybe? Either way, that's a major ow!" He put on a brave face and grinned. "Eggface is really gonna get it this time!"

"Think again, pegasus!" Eggman called from within his robot. "This robot is reinforced with unbreakable glass from three of your precious elements!"

"Whaat?!" Rainbow gasped, flying up and seeing the elements of magic, loyalty, and kindness stuck in little holsters, apparently powering the robot and protecting it at the same time. "Oh buck, that's gonna be a problem!"

"Oh, and Cobalt, I wish to inform you that I have one of your precious emeralds in my possession at the moment also!" Eggman gloated. He held up the dark blue emerald.

Cobalt mustered enough strength to hover up and look at the emerald, only to have his eyes widen with a shock he'd remember. "That's the one Metal Sonic stole." He glared at Eggman. "Have you met a blue robot, about as tall and wide as me?"

"Who?" Eggman grinned and cackled maniacally.

"Well, we're not getting a straight answer out of this idiot any time soon." Rainbow muttered, dodging a punch. "Now, Twilight!"

"Freeze, Eggman!" Twilight's voice projected from the distance, where she charged up and fired a spell at the robot. Ironically, it encased the robot in ice. Twilight wiped sweat from her forehead. "All yours guys!"

"We've gotta find a way to crack this thing!" Cobalt desperately flew around the robot to find its weak point. "Crap! It _always_ has some idiotic glowing weak point! Has Eggman gotten smarter?!"

"I doubt it!" came the immediate response from Rainbow.

AT THE EDGES OF STATION SQUARE

"Hello mister, um, human." Rarity greeted a bystander, who was looking toward the center of the town with his jaw slack. When he didn't turn, she gave him a mild zap with her magic. "Hello."

The man turned. "Um hi." Rarity realized he was looking at his eye level.

"Down here." She advised. The man looked down, screamed like a little girl, and ran away.

"Very welcoming, aren't they." She muttered to herself, trotting toward the center of the big city.

BACK WITH THE HEROES

"Explode already!" Cobalt rammed into the robot once more shoulder first, managing only to dislocate it with severe pain. "Yeow!" having learned some first aid due to failing some tricks, most notably by slamming into stuff, he quickly jerked it back into place just in time to barrel roll away from the mech's bone crushing swat.

"Nope!" he grinned, performing something he liked to call the air drift, which consisted of him turning so he was flying with one wing pointed toward the ground and one pointed skyward, allowing him to bank harder while not losing any speed. He grabbed Rainbow's hoof. "C'mon, I just had an idea."

"H-hey, wait!" Rainbow protested, but couldn't really do anything about it as Cobalt dragged her away from the robot.

LIKE, NINE SECONDS LATER

"Boost?" Rainbow questioned, crouching on the floor of the helicopter.

"Exactly!" Cobalt chuckled. "I'm insane for even thinking about it though. If it doesn't work, we're dead!"

"Explain it then, dude." Rainbow laughed, feeling the same mad rush as he was.

"So, we're both fast, right?"

"Exactly."

"So I figure if we join hooves and really accelerate it'll make us go faster!"

"Your logic is illogical!" Twilight yelled from the pilot's seat, hoof pumping. "Go for it!"

"Don't get hurt." Fluttershy whispered worriedly

"Where are you, horses?" Eggman taunted from the streets below. "Are you too scared?"

"Not a chance, Eggface!" Rainbow smirked and grabbed Cobalt's foreleg, diving out of the plane and watching as a multicolored mach cone formed around them. They might've not made a sonic boom or sonic rainboom, but they still created a huge hole through the robot, pulling up as it went boom.

Eggman was blasted off into the distance on his Eggmobile, screaming, "I HATE THOSE PEGASI!"

"Yeah ya do!" Cobalt hoof bumped Rainbow. They landed.

"That was splendid!" a familiar British accented voice said next to them, causing Rainbow to spring out of her skin.

"You really trashed that beast well!" the voice said again.

Cobalt whirled around. "Rarity!" he gave the white unicorn a huge hug, causing Rainbow to get a little jealous. She rolled her eyes, still happy to see her friend.

"Wow, you must've really missed me Cobalt." Rarity giggled.

Police sirens sounded behind the trio.

"Hold your… uh… hooves in the air!" a male human shouted, getting out of a police car and pointing a pistol.

"Don't shoot!" Cobalt yelled.

Rainbow nudged him. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"What?"

"It's not your raccoon."

"Oh yeah."

"HOLD!" A female voice ordered. "Don't shoot our heroes!"

"Wait, what?" the three ponies asked in unison.

"Yes, that's right. You all are famous in the eyes of the public!" a woman in a fancy orange suit strode up, waving off the cops and holding a microphone as a man with a camera followed behind her, obviously filming the whole thing.

"F-famous?" Rainbow stammered. "What do you mean?"

"You've stopped Doctor Eggman in his attempts to conquer our city ten times so far! How do you think we'd respond?"

Cobalt shrugged. "With pitchforks and torches?"

"Not at all! But… who's this one? I've never seen her before." She gestured to Rarity.

Rarity strode forward and bowed respectfully. "Rarity Amiz La'coutre, ma'am." She said this so it sounded like she was French.

"Well hello. I am Scarlet Garcia. And the rest of you all are?" Scarlet Garcia asked.

"Cobalt Spikes." Cobalt grinned.

"And I'm Rainbow Dash." Rainbow replied. "But you're _not_ getting my middle name."

"And I don't have one!" Cobalt added.

Twilight's purple helicopter plane landed and everypony hopped out. "What happened to the elements and emeralds!?" the lavender unicorn demanded.

"Oh please don't tell me they (gulp) exploded." Fluttershy whispered.

"Don't worry, guys. If these things are like the emeralds, then they're pretty much indestructible. They're probably just blasted to wherever." Cobalt reassured.

"Ooh." Everypony chorused. "What?"

"How do you know that?" Pinkie clarified.

"I, uh…" Cobalt stammered, racking his memory, then shrugged. "More memory recovery, I guess. I just lost it."

"Memory recovery?" Scarlet Garcia asked.

"Long story, Ms. Garcia." Cobalt sighed, rubbing the back of his head.

LATER

After enduring what felt like a million interviews, the elements and Cobalt returned back to the Thorndyke residence.

"Whoowee!" Applejack took off her hat. "That was an exhaustin' day."

"Tell me about it." Rainbow muttered.

"I think it was FUN!" Pinkie cheered.

"Hey guys." Chris smiled entering the room. "I saw you on the news."

"I think _everybody _did." Cobalt sighed.

"It was scary having all that attention." Fluttershy whispered.

"It was certainly not." Rarity scoffed. "It was amazing." Everyone/pony groaned.

MUCH LATER

Finally, _finally_ everything settled down. It was the middle of the night again, and a scene was unfolding much like the one of last night. Rainbow Dash trotted down the stairs, while Cobalt was watching a movie. Not even bothering to say hi this time, she simply plopped down next to him saying, "'Sup, blue blur?" as she snuggled closer.

"Not much, Dashie." He wrapped a foreleg around her neck.

"So, what are you watching?"

"Some sort of romantic thing, not really my type but it's the only thing on."

"Really, dude? You're actually gonna watch this?" Rainbow groaned.

"Nope, _we_ are."

She sighed, smiling. "I guess it's not _that_ bad if we're both watching it."

A few seconds later, Cobalt remembered a question he had. "Say Dash, you weren't gonna tell those reporters your middle name. Just between you and me, what is it?"

"You've gotta promise me you're not gonna tell anypony first." Rainbow looked him square in the eye.

"I promise you." Cobalt rolled his eyes. What was this, some sort of crime confession?

"Well then. I've never told anypony because it sounds really girly, and it's embarrassing. But, it's Alice."

"Rainbow Alice Dash." Cobalt sounded it out. "You mean your initials are RAD?"

"Well, yeah." Rainbow smiled. "I guess they are!"

UPSTAIRS

Rarity was sleeping soundly in her one of the seven guest beds, until a persistent crackling in her ear woke her up.

"Yes?" She mumbled sleepily, believing she was speaking to someone.

"_Rarity Amiz La'coutre._" A voice projected from the other end, and Rarity remembered the tiny earpiece G.U.N had given her for communication. "_This development in public knowledge has compromised our plans for you. Do _not_ let anyone know about your duties, and wait for further instruction. Is this clear?_"

"Yes sir." Rarity answered, completely awake by now. "The secret is safe with me." _And I want to live._ She added silently to herself.

**I just wanted to say thank you for letting me know your thoughts about the original. I read if over myself, and I realized that there were numerous things I didn't like about it. I think I managed to save the plot and eliminate the bad stuff in this draft. After all, that's what reviews are for, to let people express their opinions.**

**You might see what I'm doing if you watch the actual Sonic X show, it's really good. But anyway, in the spirit of the holidays, I'm making next chapter a Christmas special, and then the one after that will be part one of Chaos.**

**Thank you, and see you in a week.**


	7. Generic Christmas Special

**Rally to the LOL horn! This is going to be the most radical (and only) Christmas special I've ever done! HAHA!**

**Sorry, felt a little insane there for a second, but that's normal. Ah yes, the Christmas spirit means having everything in the existence of everything to have some sort of Christmas remix these days. But I still hold to the original ideals of Christmas, and so I'm giving this to you. This ****_is_**** canon, so be on the lookout for anything plot twist-y.**

**By the way, I REWORTE CHAPTER 6 SO IF YOU'D CHECK THAT OUT, IT WOULD BE GREAT!**

**City Escape Modern Remix is epic! Listen to it!**

"Do how with a snowboard?" Rainbow Dash, Earth and Ponyville's resident unprofessional stunt flier, asked Cobalt Spikes, Earth and Ponyville's resident unprofessional ground and air stuntsman.

"Grind with it." The two had chosen to visit a snow covered skate park turned snowboard rink in the winter they had landed themselves in this dimension in. "See that rail?" Cobalt gestured to a metal stair rail that just so happened to lead down into a skateboarding half-pipe. "This thing is designed to latch onto my back hooves, so I'll use it to slide down that and into the half-pipe, ride down one side of the pipe and jump out the other, doing a trick or something before landing on the other side."

"Did you really have to tie your wings down?" Rainbow asked worriedly, her dark pink eyes quivering in fear as she glanced at her friend's roped down wings.

He laughed at her expression. "Don't worry. It's all part of the risk." Secretly, he was touched by how much it seemed like she cared about him.

Even so, Rainbow was still worried. She quickly leaned in and gave him a tight hug. Seeing how he blushed and gave her a look that clearly said 'what?', she quickly explained. "For luck."

Cobalt grinned. "Are you sure it wasn't for anything else?"

"Shut up." She shoved him forward. "Don't kill yourself."

He used his momentum, rearing up and leaning forward. He jumped up onto the rail, precariously balancing on it and grinding down it. He took a deep breath as he leaped off that and into the half-pipe, snowboarding down one side and jumping on the other side. Unfortunately he mistimed his jump and gained a little _too_ much momentum and started to fall on his face. Hard.

Rainbow noticed this and zoomed over to catch him before he fell. They rolled and ended up with her on top, pinning him to the ground and gazing down at him.

A nearby kid in snow attire snorted. "You're obviously in the Christmas spirit. All you need is some mistletoe."

Rainbow realized their suggestive position, and quickly flapped into the air. "What's a Christmas?"

ONE TITLE SEQUENCE LATER

"Oh, so it's like Hearth's Warming Eve?" Rainbow raised an eyebrow.

"Dunno what that is, but I guess if that's the equivalent where you come from then yeah." The kid responded with a nod.

"But what about the mistletoe?" Cobalt got up and dusted the snow off himself, removing the snowboard.

A quick whispered explanation to both of them left the pegasi walking away side by side with bright red blushes adorning their faces.

A BIT LATER

These took a while to fade, and were still faintly present as they headed through the front door of the Thorndyke's home. "Hey guys."

"Hi." Twilight greeted them. She nodded at their reddish cheeks. "You had fun again as usual, huh?" seeing how Rainbow Dash was about to burst out in protest, she winked. "Kidding."

"Since when do you kid?" Cobalt asked dubiously, this wasn't like the unicorn's normal character.

"Since the space-time paradox that rewrote all your lives. I'm not Twilight. I'm an invader from _outer space_." Twilight joked.

"Shut up already." Rainbow rolled her eyes and Twilight gave a childish raspberry, shocking the heck out of the three, including Twilight herself.

"What's going on here?" Cobalt inquired, his speech slow with caution.

"I'm starting to not act like myself." Twilight explained. "I've been feeling weird lately, warm inside, like I have endless energy… and I'm just really _happy_. I _can't believe_ I'm asking you this… but do you have an explanation?" she gave them a pitiful look.

Cobalt and Rainbow exchanged a glance. "Uh, Twilight? Have there been any males in your life that you… um… like more than as a friend?" Rainbow raised this question, understanding what Twilight was feeling.

"And when you're around them, you feel like you've got a bunch of ninjas inside of you hacking with katana swords to try to get out?" Cobalt added. Subsequently Rainbow facehooved.

"Well, now that you mention it…" Twilight recalled a few weeks ago when they were back in Equestria.

FLASHBACK SHAZAM!

"Shadow… Shadow…" Twilight repeated in a mutter as she scribbled what had happened that particular day in her diary. "Why can't I stop thinking about him? It's not like I even know him. Why should I feel concern for him, wherever he is?"

"Hey Twilight!" Spike jogged into her room.

"Hey Spike." Twilight murmured. "What's up?"

Spike shrugged. "I've gotta get my exercise somehow, right?" he began to run in place.

"Amusing, but I've got other problems." Twilight sighed. "I can't stop thinking about this Shadow guy from Cobalt's memory. Cobalt managed to give me enough memory to get a sketch." She held up a very detailed drawing of a dark, serious looking stallion with a mane quite like Cobalt's but with some of the strands of hair turned upwards instead of drooping, and with red highlights. "I sort of had to fill in the pony details, because Cobalt can't remember much except his face."

"Detailed." Spike gave a 'not bad' look.

Twilight snorted. "I've done better."

"And you're drawing all this… why?"

"I don't know." Twilight admitted. "It just makes me happy for some reason."

PRESENT

"So _that's _who it is." Rainbow realized. She glanced at Cobalt. "You can remember faces now?"

"Only one, and only because Twilight kinda pushed me on that one." He rubbed behind his head sheepishly. "I wish I could remember more."

"As for you." Rainbow poked Twilight, grinning hugely. "You've got a little sickness called _in-love-itis_."

"Whoa, wait." Twilight waved her forehooves back and forth in a 'hold everything' gesture. "Since when did Rainbow Dash get replaced by this pony who knows what I'm feeling?"

"Since it happened to… uh…" Rainbow began to sweat; realizing Cobalt was in the room and what she was about to say involved her crush on him. "Since the alien invasion!"

"Space-time paradox." Twilight automatically corrected.

"Whatever it is, I'd reserve all, um, feelings for Shadow until after we actually meet him." Cobalt advised. "For all we know he could be some sort of imposter who sends ponies to jail for crimes they didn't commit."

"What?" Rainbow asked.

He shrugged. "I don't judge you for your ideas."

**This was just a little bit of relationship plot included for all you ShadTwi fans out there.**

LATER

"Okay guys, I have an announcement." Chris… announced as soon as he'd gotten the ponies into a room together. "To celebrate the holiday season and you all being here for almost a month, we've decided to throw a Christmas party."

"What's Christmas?" Applejack, the orange applebucking earth pony, asked immediately.

ANOTHER EXPLANATION LATER

"That sounds amazing." Rarity commented.

"I did wonder what all those commercials were for." Fluttershy squeaked; Angel Bunny subsequently started using her hair like a rope swing.

"How can we help?" Twilight asked.

"WHOOHOO PARTY!" Pinkie bounced up and down.

LATER

The seven were getting ready for the party, and _apparently_ Rarity had given the order for Cobalt to have to be in a separate room while the girls changed, though he didn't understand why since they didn't wear clothes anyway. But out of respect for their wishes, he decided to simply sit on the sofa and wait.

MEANWHILE, BACK IN CANTERLOT

**Whoa, haven't been here in a while, have we?**

"I humbly request thy permission to visit Cobalt Spikes, sister." The Princess of the Night said. "I mean, i-if that's okay with you."

Celestia gave her an exasperated look. "Luna, you don't have to get my blessing to travel. Just let me know you'll be gone for a while and I'll take over your duties until you return."

**Yep, a fan favorite is ****_back!_**

_It's that easy?_ Luna thought, having expected a larger resistance. "Th-thank you, sister." She mentally readied herself. _Okay. This spell requires chaos as well as harmony._ She thought, gulping. _I've never done this on purpose before, but Nightmare Moon, are you there?_

_LUNA. _Her darker form's voice was like a jackknife to the skull. _WHAT DOST THOU WANT? I CAN PROVIDE THEE ETERNAL RULE BY MAKING THOU JUST AND HONORABLE, ABLE TO CRUSH THY HATED FOES BEFORE THY HOOVES._

_Shut up._ Luna thought in a mumble. _I tried that deal before and it didn't work out for all parties involved. I'm taking some of your chaos energy and you're going to let me._

_BUT I HATH ALREADY STARTED TAKING OVER._

With a shock, Luna realized it was true, she could feel the corruption overtaking her mind. Black plumes of smoke floated from her.

"Better make this quick, then!" she shouted out loud. "Chaos Control!" and vanished in a flash of black light.

**Wait, Luna can do Chaos Control? Didn't expect that, did you?**

BACK IN DIMENSION X

Rainbow Dash felt good about how she looked. Secretly she'd requested Rarity's help to aid her looks on behalf of Cobalt, but in a way that nopony could notice unless they looked really hard. She'd made Rarity promise on the most solemn oaths that she'd never tell anypony.

A knock came on the door, and the six mares heard Cobalt say, "Yo guys, can I come in?"

"Not for a few minutes Cobalt!" Rarity replied in a singsong tone, like she was speaking to a foal. "We're not dressed."

"You don't wear clothes." Came his response.

Twilight, who was currently combing her mane, glanced at the others. "He's got a point. Besides, what's he going to see? He said it himself, we don't really wear clothes."

"It's on principle!" Rarity hissed.

"What principle?" Fluttershy asked in a whisper.

"Let the man come in, Ah look _good_." Applejack snorted.

Pinkie, for some odd reason, was silent; she'd taken the laundry chute down.

"Oh for Celestia's sake–" Rainbow Dash was impatient of all this bickering, and simply flew over and opened the door to see Cobalt leaning in the doorframe. "Uh, hi."

"Ditto." Rainbow responded dryly. "Why'd you need to come in?"

"I just wanted to make an announcement. Pinkie's creepy lawn gnomes have arrived and she needs help moving them." He pointed down the stairs with his wing. "Sometimes I think she needs a –whoa." He was cut short as he realized that Rainbow looked better than usual. Her mane was done like it was wet, but it was completely dry and natural looking instead of, as Rarity put it, 'like she'd just fallen into a river'. He also noticed that her eyes seemed prettier than normal, but he couldn't put a hoof on why.

Unbeknownst to him, Rarity had done subtle work on her with some eye makeup, the cosmetic unnoticeable, but the result sure looked great.

"What, cat got your tongue?" Rainbow teased.

Somewhere in an alternate dimension, Opalescence tensed, like someone, or some_thing_, had invoked his soul. Meanwhile a squirrel fell off a skyscraper.

"Come on man, just because I look a little better than usual for a party doesn't mean I'm not still me." She continued, and gave him a friendly noogie. "Besides, it's what you get for being friends with a bunch of fillies."

"I suppose so." Cobalt reflected on that a little. She was right, ever since he'd gotten his memory wiped, he hadn't made a single guy friend besides Spike. _And I'm fine with that._ He realized. _None of the other colts in town are anywhere near as cool as my friends._ Then he froze in his… thoughts. _Do I even _want_ my memory back?_ That was a question he'd never thought of before. _What if all my friends are really my hated enemies? My unknown past hangs over me like a shadow, but what if that's better than the alternative?_

Eventually (like five seconds later) he ceased thought on that topic, as it made his brain hurt.

Rainbow seemed concerned. "Are you okay? You seem… what's the word?"

"Thoughtful, pensive, brooding?" he listed a couple of synonymic adjectives, letting out a laugh. "I'm a walking thesaurus."

Pinkie's impatient shout came from downstairs. "Come on guys! Help me with my gnomes!"

"Y'all weren't kidding, were ya?" Applejack asked, tipping up her hat.

LATER

Well, the elf was on the shelf, the gnomes were sorted, the decorations were randomly strung up, and the party had started. Then guess who arrived?

Lunar Enterprises showed up in their truck with soft glow lights for when it got darker out. **(Fooled you, didn't I!)**

Pinkie hooked up the DJ station and started spinning some beats, and though others tried the job, she remained the champion. "How do you know what to do with this stuff?" Cobalt asked after he'd lost one of the epic DJ duels.

"No idea!" Pinkie grinned at him.

"I surrender, you're the ultimate party goddess." He sighed.

"Don't worry! I'm sure you're the goddess of something!"

"That scares me, Pinkie."

ELIHWNAEM

"Just walk up to him and tell him how ya feel, sugarcube." Applejack advised her spectra colored friend. "The worst he'll do is say he doesn't like ya back."

"That's what I'm afraid of…" Rainbow whimpered, cowering in a corner with her ears folded down and her body curled into the tiniest ball she could manage. She didn't like having to be consoled like this, she much preferred to do things on her own, but for some reason she just couldn't bring herself to actually confess her feelings. The idea made her nauseous from anxiety. Even though she had practiced a million times and rethought what she'd planned to say about a million more, she'd still had to throw up once with nervousness. It felt like she was trying to breathe through a plastic bag.

Yet this was the perfect time to do this. It was Christmas, a season that was filled with cheer, happiness, and according to a few of the specials she'd seen, romance.

"Try and sweet talk him." Applejack suggested. "If ya can't bring yourself round to just say it up front, butter him up a little and then drop the bomb."

"Thanks for the advice, Applejack, but I think I'll just do this my way." Rainbow said shakily.

"Go get 'em!"

MEANWHILE WITH COBALT

Cobalt felt a gust of wind blast past behind him, and turned to see a familiar filly facing him. "I wonder who that could be?"

Rainbow swallowed hard and tried to act natural, doing what she assumed she would naturally do, give an eye roll and a shove. "Shut up, Spikes."

"Since when does anypony call me that?"

"Since now." She said dryly. "I've got something I want to tell you, and it might, um, shock you a little." She chose her words carefully, speaking hesitantly, but all of a sudden a wave of panic washed over her and she blurted out, "One moment!" and flew away at top speed.

Cobalt raised an eyebrow and took a few steps backward; not realizing what was hung in the open doorway he'd stepped into. Neither did Fluttershy, as she casually approached him.

"Hi Cobalt." She said.

"Oh, hey." He said, nodding to her. "What's up?"

"Um, nothing–" she looked up and cringed, her pupils shrinking. "Oh dear."

"What?" he demanded, confused at her sudden change in attitude. She covered her mouth and pointed to the ceiling above him, utter terror in her eyes. He realized what it must be, and looked up at the ceiling, dread touching his spine like a cold knife. A green fern with red berries was hanging from the doorframe.

Crap_._

"Umm, Fluttershy, we don't have to do this thing if you don't want to." He tried to give her, and himself, and opt out.

"Cobalt, we can't ignore custom." She whispered. "Let's just get it done."

He started to protest, but she halted whatever he was going to say but pulling him in for a kiss. Cobalt was surprised; she was actually a very good kisser, especially for a filly who had never had a coltfriend. But as he thought about it, he felt nothing in his heart while this happened. Nothing at all.

But a certain female pegasus that had just walked into the room did. Heartbreak. Tears welled up in Rainbow Dash's eyes as she felt her heart crack. She'd never thought she could feel this kind of sorrow, not even when Cobalt had been gone for a whole week with no sign of returning had it cut this deep, but what surfaced most of all was an utter hatred for Fluttershy. It was irrational, she knew that, they'd been best friends since they'd met in Cloudsdale, but at the moment she wished she could strangle the timid pegasus.

A flash of black light appeared next to her, and Princess Luna appeared out of nowhere. She looked at the scene before her, and wasn't the slightest bit sad. On the super long portal trip there she'd come to terms with her affections, but realized that she wasn't allowed to have them, and for all honesty thought it best that she didn't have them, since her immortality would eventually cause her to see whomever she loved dying in front of her while she remained young. She did however notice the young pegasus softly crying beside her.

"Rainbow Dash, what is–"

"Just leave me alone!" Rainbow shouted through her tears, now beginning to spill onto the floor and drip down her face. She turned tail and ran up the stairs, not even bothering to realize that she was being disrespectful to one of the princesses of Equestria.

Cobalt heard this and broke away from Fluttershy, whipping around to glimpse the tip of Rainbow's tail vanishing upstairs. "Oh shit."

"Language!" Fluttershy hissed, but she too was still in the shock of what she'd just done. She would never deliberately hurt a friend.

"Dash–" Cobalt began to chase after Rainbow, but was held back by Applejack, who shook her head sadly. "Let her let it out. Ah know how fillies think, after all, Ah am one. Talkin' to her right now won't do neither of y'all no good. She's gonna have to calm down before she'll be able to talk rationally."

Cobalt somewhat understood that, looking down and nodding with consent.

LATER

Nopony, or human for that matter, ever really got settled after that, but the rest of the party continued with its usual cheer, after Luna was introduced and given a briefing on the recent events.

After all the actual events, and when everyone started milling around with nothing to do, Cobalt decided it had been long enough and headed up the stairs. When he got into the ponies' shared room (yeah, all seven of them in one room), he was saddened to see Rainbow miserably crying into her bed's pillow, curled up into the fetal position.

"I wish I'd never been born." He heard her whimper. "I can't believe I was so stupid." A bit of sarcastic resentment touched her voice when she said that.

"Dash…" Cobalt began.

"What?" she sat up, her eyes red, but her voice as cold and polite as possible. "Is there something wrong?"

"Yes, of course there is. You're miserable." He said, worried.

"What are you talking about? I'm fine." Her voice cracked on the last word.

"No, you're not." He asserted.

"Please leave me alone. I don't want to talk." Rainbow's tone gave away that she was about one second away from completely flipping.

"Dash, please…" Cobalt tried.

"GET OUT!" Rainbow screamed, suddenly speeding up and punching him across the face in pure anger. A second later she covered her mouth, appalled at what she'd just done. "Cobalt, I'm so sorry…"

But his eyes had already hardened. "Sorry, Cobalt's not here right now." He said coldly and exited the room.

Rainbow could barely breathe. "He was just trying to be nice." She realized. "What have I done…?"

BACK DOWNSTAIRS

Cobalt walked stiffly past where the other five ponies, an alicorn, Chris, and Chuck were playing a board game.

"Your meeting with Rainbow didn't go as well as you'd hoped?" Rarity asked, seeing the red mark on his face where he'd been hit.

"Shut up." He growled, going to the kitchen and getting one of the alcoholic drinks Chuck kept in the refrigerator. He knew he was underage by human standards, but he didn't care as he popped off the cap and took a long drink, hoping it would keep his mind off what had happened. A few sips later and the apparently alcohol intolerant young pegasus was passed out on the kitchen floor, terrible nightmares overwhelming him.

**So, the holiday didn't go exactly as planned for our heroes, did it? Oh, what? You thought I was going to make everything work out perfectly in the Christmas special?**

**Ha ha, NO.**

**Just a bit of advice to other young writers (like maybe sixteen and younger), if you're having trouble getting into the emotions your characters are feeling, listen to songs that reflect those emotions. I was listening to ****_The Chosen One_**** from ****_Shadow the Hedgehog_**** when I wrote the last part, and you have no idea how easy that made it.**

**Also, READ THIS PLEASE! Just to remind you, I HAVE REDONE CHAPTER SIX! IF YOU HAVE NOT READ IT YET, PLEASE GO AND DO SO!**

**And finally, READ THIS TOO! If you have any immediate questions about this or the original All the Elements for Disaster story, please feel free to ask it in a review. I ****_will_**** answer it in the next chapter.**

**So anyway, this is a direct lead-in to CHAOS Part 1, my Sonic Adventure adaptation. Stick with this until next week for a resolution (LOL, only maybe) to all these character problems.**

**Peace!**


	8. Chaos Parts 1 & 2

**So, let me give you a run down on the stuff you need to know. Luna's gone back to Equestria (yes, Luna x Cobalt fans, that was never meant to be), Rainbow Dash and Cobalt Spikes now hate each other (or do they?), and it is affecting all the others. I wonder how this Sonic Adventure adaptation will affect that?**

**I'm sorry that I couldn't post this earlier (stupid error 503!), but I hope the general awesomeness will make up for that.**

PART 1

Chris opened the door to the room where the ponies slept and carefully poked Cobalt. He had to be cautious, since Cobalt had been extremely on edge since the Christmas party. But this was something that couldn't wait.

"Cobalt." He whispered.

"Ngg." The dark blue pegasus twitched and grunted, obviously having another terrible nightmare, like he always had frequently. His green eyes snapped open and immediately narrowed in anger. "What?"

"Uhh, I just wanted to let you know that there's a monster terrorizing downtown." Chris informed him.

"Okay. I'm on it." he growled, throwing off his covers.

Rainbow Dash, who had never really fallen asleep, raised her head. "I'll help."

Cobalt shot her a killer glare. "No thank you, I'll do it myself." He said coldly and shot out the window.

Rainbow's eyes watered with tears, and she started sobbing into her pillow. "W-why can't he j-just understand that I-I just want to apologize a-and be f-friends again?" she choked, a fresh wave of tears spilling out.

This was how many of their conversations went these days. Ever since she'd punched Cobalt, he'd been treating her with this cold politeness, nothing to trigger her anger, but enough to hurt her emotionally, making her feel that he didn't care for her at all anymore. She wished he'd at least give her _something_. She wished he'd scream at her, or deliver a blow back, or _anything_ but this unfeeling, monotonous politeness.

She broke off with anything she was going to say, crying.

Chris felt a pang of sorrow for her. All she wanted to do after her worst mistake ever was to reconcile, and the hostility between her and Cobalt was preventing that from ever happening.

MEANWHILE

Cobalt flew above the city of Station Square, looking for the commotion. Due to his tendency to fly at night, he'd gained the nickname of Nightwing from the civilians.

As he thought about stuff, resentment for Rainbow Dash bubbled up inside of him. "Stupid filly." He muttered. "Why can't she just leave me alone?"

Finally he located the source of the attack. Police surrounded a blue thing on all sides. He rolled his eyes. "Blue, of course." He growled sarcastically and dove down to attack it.

Landing hard in front of the beast, he waved off the police, his anger built enough to take this thing on his own. Using momentum gained from his wings, he threw a punch at the thing (it sort of resembled a blue praying mantis) that would've knocked anything else out cold. Instead, he phased right through the thing like it was… made of water.

Of course.

Water was his only fear, given the fact that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't swim. If this thing was actually water, he stood no chance unless he could find some way to actually land a blow on it.

_What is this thing?_ He thought, flying straight through it once more.

_Chaos_.

The name flashed through his head like wildfire. Now he was really in deep. If he was getting memory back then this was uber-important.

"All right, _thing_, let's rumble." He growled, but never even got the chance, since the monster dissolved into a sewer drain.

"Wha?" was all he could manage.

But just a few seconds later, a tinkling sound was heard and the element of kindness dropped out of the sky onto the drain. "How?" Cobalt asked.

"That would be me!" Eggman said, hovering down on his Eggmobile. Chaos popped out of the drain and absorbed the element, and grew a robotic arm to go with is visible brain. "Aw man." Cobalt muttered.

"You see, my dear pegasus, Chaos is invincible. When you feed it a chaos emerald or one of your silly elements of harmony, it grows in power!"

_Shoot_. Cobalt thought, flying over to the creature and trying to punch it. Chaos whacked him away like a paper wad. He skidded on the street, cutting a few gashes in his sides. "So _now_ you're solid." He groaned, getting onto his hooves once more. He didn't realize Chaos was nearly on top of him. "Whoa, back off dude."

"Sorry, Cobalt." Eggman gloated. "Chaos only takes orders from me." As he spoke, Chaos leveled his robotic arm at Cobalt, preparing to blast him into oblivion.

"Cobalt!" he heard a familiar voice scream, a rainbow colored blur shooting past him and yanking him out of the way of the high-pressure stream of water.

He glanced at Rainbow Dash, who of course was the blur, in annoyance. "I don't need your help." He grumbled. "I can do this myself."

"Way to say thanks to all your friends for coming to save your sorry flank." She said, her red tinted magenta eyes narrowing. "You'd be _dead_ right now. Now if you'd please, stay out of the way before your _stupid_ rash actions get yourself killed!" she hissed.

"Bite me." He growled back.

"I don't know why I ever thought I should help you. Only _friends_ would help each other." She spat, dropping him on the ground. His form made a dull thump as he smacked against solid concrete.

She turned and turned back toward the battle, where her friends were keeping Chaos busy. As she watched, Applejack started bucking Chaos, while Rarity and Twilight used some sort of spell to keep its motions slow. Pinkie provided an impossible target, and Fluttershy started beating her wings in Eggman's face to keep him distracted. All five had angry expressions ranging from agitated to just plain enraged.

Rainbow put on a burst of speed and smashed right though Chaos' middle, shattering its form.

"Argh!" Eggman angrily thrust Fluttershy out of his face and tossed something towards Chaos. Rainbow caught a small glimpse of it as it tumbled through the air and Chaos absorbed it. "The element of loyalty!"

Chaos gained a more powerful looking form right before their eyes and either punched or kicked the ponies away. It glared at Rainbow, the only one unscathed, and shot a bolt of chaos energy at her. Her eyes widened and she only had time to cringe before… the shot struck Cobalt. As he plummeted to the ground in front of her, she realized what must've happened; Cobalt had taken the shot for her.

_But… why?_ She thought, confused. _We're supposed to hate each other._

She swooped down next to him, noting the huge scorch mark on his stomach. "W-why did you do that?"

He grimaced. "I didn't do it to save _you_." He said with distaste. "I was trying to help Applejack."

"I-I can't believe you!" she growled, kicking him hard with a forehoof. "I _hate_ you!"

He glanced away uncomfortably for a moment, but then resumed glaring. "Do you want to fight right now, 'cause I'll take you anytime!"

"I can't think of _any_ better time." Rainbow snarled, hoisting him back onto his hooves only to knock him back down by bucking him in his face. He collapsed with his nose bleeding, completely unconscious.

_I don't feel any better_. She thought miserably. _This isn't how it should be._ She wiped at tears that she didn't even realize were flowing until they dripped onto the ground. She just couldn't keep on her hooves anymore and collapsed with emotion. She sobbed into the concrete.

Meanwhile, Twilight and Applejack were combining magic and strength to deal with Chaos. Eventually, after one really hard buck combined with a freezing spell, Chaos shattered into a million little pieces and retreated down the sewer drain.

"Curse you ponies!" Eggman shouted. "If you think I'm defeated, then you've got another thing coming!" he retreated into the sky on his Eggmobile.

"Umm, dear," Rarity asked Twilight. "Shouldn't we go after him?"

"No." Twilight said. "This isn't the right time. Besides," she glanced at Rainbow, who was still crying over what she'd done. "I think we're all a bit too high-strung to work coherently."

"That's true." Fluttershy whispered.

PART 2

Cobalt's eyes fluttered open in a black void, prompting him to stand up. "Wow, well that figures. Anything _else _to show me, subconscious?"

"Not thy subconscious, Cobalt Spikes, but we are a messenger to thee." A familiar voice said from behind him.

He whipped around once again to face Princess Luna. "Seriously, can't you appear in _front_ of me for once?" he asked exasperatedly, feigning irritation to hide the fact that he was somewhat relieved.

"Maybe we can, maybe we cannot." Luna gave him a wry smile. "But this is not what we are here about."

"Mind telling me why you are then?"

"We saw how Rainbow Dash reacted to thee osculating thy friend Fluttershy." Luna, of course, had to use the most old-timey and embarrassing term.

Cobalt flushed, gave a sheepish grin, and glanced away. "Not exactly my choice there, ma'am."

"We understand that, yet thou seem to be pushing her away since. Why?"

"It wasn't really me, though. I tried to talk to her, and she hurt me both emotionally and physically." He rubbed the place where he'd been hit. "I guess I haven't been _exactly_ fair and given her a second chance, and now that I reflect, she's been trying to reconcile…" he gritted his teeth. "Shoot. That's what's wrong. I've been making it worse."

"We see that we were needed only to push thy mind in the right direction." Luna glanced up into the sky like she was calculating something. "And now we owe our sister twenty bits, but that is not the point. We came bearing a message. Thy memory troubles may have an answer."

Cobalt's eyes widened. "Seriously?!"

"Verily. When thou get back, visit Canterlot and we may be able to help thee."

"_Awesome_. Yet, I still have two huge questions."

"And these are?"

"One: why do I always dream my way into _here_ unless I'm just having a normal dream?" He gestured around to the void. "It's _mega_-freaky."

"This is, to the extent of our knowledge, your pipeline to all your forgotten memories." Luna nodded to a thunderstorm forming in the distance. "That one looks chaotic."

Seeing how his expression immediately changed from guarded curiosity to amazed wonder, and realizing how her advice might prompt him to explore deeper into these chasms, Luna quickly added, "But we would not advise thee to journey too far into thy subconscious, because ponies of past with your… _conditions_ have been known to go to sleep and never wake up."

Cobalt drew back and sniffed. "What do ya mean by _conditions_?"

"Amnesia and slight insanity."

He chuckled. "Well, you're right with the partially insane stuff there, I'm on the edge of the deep end. I do think I'm getting better though."

Luna's expression warmed, a small amount of her old feelings resurfacing at his antics. "Indeed. What is thy second question?"

"Did you ever have… how do I say it…" Cobalt tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Oh yeah, that's it. A _crush_ on me?"

Luna blushed furiously, astounded he'd been able to put a hoof on it so easily. "How did thou figure this?!"

He shrugged. "I can read faces pretty well. And judging by your expression I'm right?"

"Y-yes. At one point we did feel for thou as more than one of our subjects, but we have let those feelings go. It is not our way to love, as we live forever and others do not." Luna admitted.

"Well that's good, 'cause I was gonna tell you that I don't feel anything like that toward you." He quickly covered up what could have been mistaken as disrespect or an insult with, "N-no offense meant there though, um, your majesty."

Luna wasn't angry whatsoever, though. "Respect does not come naturally to thee, dost it?"

"Not really, ma'am."

"We understand completely." Luna nodded, giving him another wry grin. "We as well can read faces." An earthquake shook the ground, causing the void to crack like glass and several pieces to drop to the metaphorical floor. "This dream is beginning to shatter. Somepony is infringing on thy consciousness."

"That's weird. I don't think anypony would want to wake me up after the way I acted…" Cobalt started to feel miserable again.

"Do not dwell on past mistakes, Cobalt Spikes. All is able to be reconciled, and what to be focused on is the present." Luna's piercing light blue eyes were the last things he saw as his dream was destroyed.

Cobalt woke up to a pair of red tinted magenta eyes staring angrily at him.

"Wake up. Wake up already!" a female voice ordered. His vision focused on the eyes instinctively, and he reared back, his wings extending and his head banging against a wire frame. "Yaah! Ow!"

As his vision slowly de-blurred, he rubbed his head in pain. Rainbow Dash was sitting in front of him, literally on top of the bed he was lying on. "Whoa, jeez Dashie, lay off a little!"

"Don't call me that." She said automatically, the way she would to a stranger. "Tell me why you've been so mean lately."

"Quick question first. Why am I here, where is here, and why are you here."

"That's three questions, you had a mild head injury," Cobalt felt a sudden sharp pain near the back of his skull when she said that. "This is Station Square's hospital, and _I_ want information."

Cobalt chewed his tongue nervously. "I guess that all makes sense, but as for _your _question, I don't know what you're asking."

In response, she curled one of her wings down and began sweeping the feathers slowly up and down his exposed stomach. "Tell me. I know you have an answer."

His eyes widened and his sides shook with barely suppressed laughter. "Dash, stop. You know I can't take this." Yep, that was one thing he was certainly sure of. In the way of being tickled, he caved at square one. Seeing as she only started to move her wing faster, he desperately tried to cover up his belly, but was shocked to find that his hooves, all four of them, were roped to the sides of this metal framed cot. "Hey! P-please make it stop!"

"Not until you give me an answer." She replied, an evil-looking smile forcing its way onto her lips. "Maybe I won't stop at all. It's fun watching you squirm."

At this point Cobalt was twitching spasmodically, pained laughter spilling from him like a waterfall. "Rainbow I can't HAHA! I can't take this WAHAHA! MAKE IT STOPAHAHAHAHAHA! IT'S BECAUSE YOU HIT ME! NOW STOP ALREADYAHAHA!"

Now it was Rainbow's turn to be shocked, freezing up entirely, startled just enough for Cobalt to delicately use his wing to get hers off him.

"I'd never thought of it that way since you started being so mean. And the only reason I even did that is because I saw you, well (gulp) kissing Fluttershy. But I'm sure you're very happy with her." Rainbow's voice cracked.

Cobalt raised an eyebrow and gulped, causing her to be suspicious, but then he quickly covered that up with the most heartfelt laugh she'd ever heard. "Wait, you think Fluttershy and I are dating? Hah, that's really funny!"

"Wait, y-you're not?" her utter joy at that realization flowed forth in her speech.

"Uh, no. Nopony is any more special to me than you, Dashie." He wrapped a foreleg around her neck and stared into her eyes, all their disagreements forgotten. They were lost in their own world for a few seconds until a nurse walked in and gave Rainbow her five minute limit warning.

Face burning, Cobalt pushed her away. "Um, that doesn't mean… uh y'know… that we're…"

"Right." She agreed, smiling. "But _that_ doesn't mean I can't do this as a friend." She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "And by the way, with your injuries, you're out of our battle with Chaos."

Another bit of pain wracked his skull, but that didn't stop him from protesting. "Wait a second, you're trying to keep me out of this? No way, nuh-uh. I'm in this to the end."

"I'm sorry man, but even when I tried to tell the others that, they still told me that you'd have to sit this one out." He sighed as she started untying his bonds. "Sorry about these, but I knew you'd try to run and needed some assurance you wouldn't."

"It's okay." He said, knowing he'd be there to show up when the time was needed. "One question left though. Why are you here in the first place?"

Rainbow Dash blushed. "I-I just couldn't leave you alone really."

SEVEN HOURS AGO

"I don't get it. Shouldn't we be going after Eggman instead of taking a coffee break?" Rainbow asked the rest who had congregated in Chris' room.

"Can I have coffee?" Pinkie asked.

"NO!" everyone/pony chorused, not wanting to see the energetic pink mare on coffee.

"I think Chaos just needs some compassion to feel better." Fluttershy suggested kindly, as was her element.

"That ain't gonna work and we all know it." Applejack corrected.

"We have to _think_." Twilight said. "Any ideas?"

"We could get coffee!" Pinkie proposed.

"No!" Chris shut her idea down once more.

"I'm out of here! I think best in the air." Rainbow said angrily, impulsively flying off. _I can't bear to think of Cobalt coming to alone in some room._

BACK TO THE PRESENT

"So that's why." Cobalt realized. "Haha! You really do care, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do." Rainbow smiled. "Now rest up, I've got to find Twilight and the others so we can work on finding the elements. We've almost got a location."

"Yup." He grinned, reclining. "I'm gonna enjoy a little peace and quiet."

SOME TIME LATER… IN A RANDOM PLACE THAT I'M TO LAZY TO FIND THE NAME OF

Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle stood in the middle of a field with strange rock structures, Twilight's inner sense reacting to a strong magnetic pull on her subconscious. After a few steps with her eyes being closed, they suddenly snapped open. "It's here." She was standing on top of a bare patch of ground in comparison to the grassy plain. "Now _how_ are we going to get there?"

Rainbow looked delighted to answer. "Oh yes! I've been working on a drill move!" she flew high into the air and started doing a perfect corkscrew downward, her body eventually blurring into a rainbow colored tornado. The bottom of the tornado slammed into the dirt below and tore away massive amounts of stone and earth from the ground. Eventually she reappeared, with the element of magic in tow. "Got it!"

"That's amazing, Rainbow!" Twilight congratulated her. A maniacal laugh sounded from behind them and a robotic claw snatched the element right out of Rainbow's hoof. "I'll take that!"

"Eggman!" Twilight whirled around and accused the obvious perpetrator who was hovering in his Eggmobile.

"That's right, my little pony, and now Chaos 2 will become Chaos 3! Ahahaha!" Eggman used the claw to toss the element over to a pool of… was that water?

The 'water' absorbed the emerald and decided to form into a bigger water monster than they had seen before, the latter apparently being Chaos 2.

"Behold, Chaos 3!" Eggman cackled.

"We get it already!" Rainbow snapped. "And for my next trick, I will smash your water beast!" she rammed into Chaos, inadvertently getting stuck inside. "Mmph!"

"Rainbow!" Twilight yelled in concern, casting a tractor beam-like spell to try to pull her friend out of the water monster. Rainbow was now trying to use her wings to claw at her throat, her expression utterly screaming that she needed air. Right. Then. At. That. Very. Freaking. Moment.

The second she was out of Chaos, she was swatted out of the air by Eggman's claw, several cuts appeared on her back as she was slammed into the ground. Twilight gritted her teeth and cast another freezing spell, instantly causing Chaos to be shatter-able.

Twilight reared around and smashed her hind hooves into Chaos over and over, still unable to make even a dent in the pure chaos entity. All of a sudden a dark blue streak smashed into Chaos and broke it into a million pieces. A dark blue pegasus flew an upper corkscrew and pumped a forehoof into the air. "Yes! Score _one_ for the ponies!"

The pegasus, obviously Cobalt, flew into the distance, presumably to return to his hospital room before he was missed.

Rainbow spat out bloody water. "Oh man, déjà-vu to the maximum." She choked out, remembering the time she'd been choking on blood/water. "Thank you Twilight and Cobalt!"

"But the element is gone!" Twilight realized. "And Eggman's still here!"

"You think you've beaten me, but this is just getting started!" Eggman roared, pressing a button on his control panel and making the robot turn into something very resembling Big Arm.

Rainbow and Twilight got into battle stances. "Bring it ON!"

**As you can tell, next chapter will include a battle scene, and another, and probably another. What fun!**

**I know Cobalt's appearance was a bit of a ****_deus ex machina_****, but he made a decision and you know his character, he's gonna keep to it. Sorry if this plot (not that kind of plot) seemed a little rushed, but I'm trying to squeeze a boatload of episodes into two chapters. On the bright side it makes for much longer chapters than my status quo.**

**I'll see ya next week, guys!**


	9. Chaos Parts 3 & 4

**I wasn't even thinking of this until now, but Cobalt is an element, number 27 to be exact. Hah! Now on to the battle!**

PART 3

Eggman and the two ponies began a standoff, waiting to see who would make the first move. Little did Eggman know that Rainbow Dash was slowly extending her wings to take off, and Twilight Sparkle was getting ready to cast another spell, this time the opposite of a freezing spell, one to overheat the Big Arm robot instead of chill it.

"You really thought I was _so_ unprepared, didn't you?" Eggman sneered, holding up a button trigger. "But you didn't think that I would have the foresight to plant a bomb on your boyfriend, did you, little flying horse?"

AT COBALT'S HOSPITAL ROOM

Cobalt Spikes scratched behind his ear, feeling something that caused an irritating itch.

"Are you okay?" a nurse asked him worriedly, not knowing much about the anatomy of a pegasus pony. For all she knew that could be a sign of a killing disease.

"Nah, just scratching." He replied. "Feels like there's something behind my ear."

BACK IN THAT RANDOM PLACE I DON'T KNOW THE NAME OF

"NO!" Rainbow screamed trying to fly at the robot.

Twilight quickly snagged Rainbow's tail in her teeth. "Wait! We can't do anything yet!"

"But Cobalt!" Rainbow's words were strained as she struggled to get free.

"It's what he wants you to do!" Twilight reasoned, her concentration for the spell completely broken now. Reluctantly Rainbow sat down.

"Aww, so adorable!" Eggman mocked. "It makes me sick."

"Rainbow, go." Twilight hissed under her breath as soon as the pegasus had calmed down enough. "The others need your help to find the rest of the elements and the emeralds."

"But Twilight, you don't know what he'll do to y–"

"Just go! I'll distract him." To Eggman, "Hey big, fat, and ugly! I've got one of those elements your dumb Chaos monster needs! Come and get me!" and with that, Twilight ran off, occasionally dodging laser shots with teleportation spells. It was obvious that this wouldn't be a permanent solution, but it worked at the moment.

Rainbow Dash flew off, the ground blurring below her. Within an hour, she had traversed the entire United States, making it back to the Thorndyke residence. Admittedly, she was worried about everything, but tried to hide it as she strode with false confidence into the house. That confidence quickly crumbled as she saw Cobalt, with bandages wrapped around his forehead, sitting on the sofa.

"Gah!" her wings flared out and she stumbled backwards, slamming into the lamp and causing the shade to fall over her head.

"Hi Dashie." He said with a smile. "Sorry if I surprised ya."

"S-surprised me!? You're a walking time bomb!" she got the lampshade off and slowly backed up.

"Why yes, I know I'm the bomb, but what's this about a walking time bomb?" he sat up, his interest obviously peaked.

"Eggman planted a bomb on you and he's got Twilight hostage!" Rainbow informed him, still terrified.

Cobalt's expression turned hard and determined. "Right. We've got to rescue her."

"B-but your injuries–"

"If I'm going to blow up, better I blow up at Eggman's base than here." He said without leaving any room for question. "The good of the many over the good of the few."

Rainbow began to see his point. "But what about the others?"

"Still looking for the elements, can't go as fast as we can, let's _go_!" he jetted past her and started flying toward the sea, with her following shortly after.

They traversed the land in a matter of seconds, getting to sea level shortly. They flew at a safe distance away from each other, just enough so that if Cobalt blew up, he would go out alone.

They got to the base, a cylinder shaped building with a yellow roof, and Cobalt kicked down the door in one fell swoop, busting down several walls and taking out sentry robots. Rainbow, meanwhile, found a way to squeeze in through the air vents and try to find the place that Eggman was holding his prisoner.

She spy crawled past a vent opening where Eggman was cowering, protected by several robots, in front of a really angry Cobalt.

"Go Cobalt!" she cheered in a whisper, seeing that the blue pegasus had smashed the bomb trigger against a wall and was now crushing the actual tiny bomb underhoof.

She squeezed a bit farther and found something she wasn't planning to see: all of her friends tied to chairs and gagged. Rainbow raised an eyebrow, but kicked out the vent and squeezed through. Her friends saw her and started making exited, muffled noises through their gags.

ONE DEGAGGING AND UNTYING LATER

"Thank ya kindly, Rainbow." Applejack tipped her hat. "Ah know we might always see eye to eye, but I know ya got my back."

"And that's the _honest_ truth!" Pinkie joked, obviously happy to be untied.

"What–no, _how_ did you get here?" Rainbow asked.

"We were trying to get the elements." Fluttershy whispered.

"And doing a bad job of it at that." Rarity added.

"Eggman got all of us after he got me and has all the elements, but has yet to let Chaos _6_ attack Station Square." Twilight informed her friend in a flat tone.

"Chaos 6?" Rainbow complained. "Aw man, if it was bad at 3, then we've got another thing coming."

"NOT WATER!" they heard a voice scream in fear from down the stairs.

"Aaaand, there's Cobalt." Pinkie said enthusiastically, already on the way to help.

DOWNSTAIRS

A now terrified Cobalt struggled against a rapidly rising tide of water in the room he was in. It hadn't swelled above breathing level yet, but it was still roiling and splashing all over. It seemed every time he got a chance to breathe, water filled his lungs again.

"Help! Can't swim!" he choked, unable to even stay afloat for long.

"This is just a taste of Chaos 6's power for you." Eggman gloated from his safe vantage point in his Eggmobile above the waters. "Hopefully you'll live long enough to experience Perfect Chaos' wrath, and then maybe long enough to see Eggmanland where I can hunt you and your friends down!"

"Stupid idea Eggman!" Cobalt growled, trying to use his wings as a way to swim. "My friends'll stop you even if I _do _die here!"

"Speaking of…!" Rainbow Dash flew in and midair bucked the Eggmobile, sending it careening through the wall. "You need sturdier walls!" she dove down and scooped Cobalt out of the water in her forelegs. Too late did she realize that doing so would dampen her wings too much to fly. "Hold on, this may be bumpy!"

The two pegasi crashed through several walls and finally smashed out of the entire building, skidding in the sand and creating a trail. They sat up, groaning. "You okay?" Cobalt asked, still half stunned.

"Ow." Rainbow rubbed her head. "I've gotta stop doing stuff like that. Yeah, I think I'm good."

This was true, both had only suffered minor injuries, such as cuts and scrapes and bruises, and their wings weren't broken, only soggy.

Chaos 6 (resembling Perfect Chaos more now), which was sitting on the beach, used its ropelike tentacles to grab each of them.

"Hey ugly!" Twilight used another freezing spell to make Chaos ice again, and Applejack simply walked up and bucked it into shattering.

"Are you okay?!" Fluttershy ran up and asked worriedly, checking them for injuries and broken bones. "That was quite a crash you had! You must be hurt!"

"Sheesh, calm down Flutters, we're good." Cobalt said, struggling to his hooves. Fluttershy couldn't say she didn't blush a little at the nickname.

"Stop wrecking my Chaos monster!" Eggman complained, now out of his Eggmobile and on his feet. He took something out of his coat and tossed it at the rapidly defrosting shards of Chaos.

None of the ponies were fast enough to catch it, but Twilight caught a glimpse of a green gem. "The green chaos emerald!" Chaos 6 absorbed it and became what looked like a giant, carnivorous lizard's head sticking out of the ocean.

"BEHOLD, PERFECT CHAOS!" Eggman commanded.

_Well, now we're doomed_. Rainbow decided. _Chaos has all seven components needed, and we're all weak or injured_.

The moment she thought that, a giant wave of water slammed them against the base's metal exterior.

Eggman strode over and checked each of them for a pulse. Rainbow Dash and Cobalt were very surely dead, and the others wouldn't be coming round for a while. "I win!" he cackled. "Take your silly elements, Chaos doesn't need them anymore!" The elements shot out of Chaos and next to their respective bearers.

"I WIN!" Eggman flew away in his Eggmobile along with Chaos across the sea, toward the faraway skyline of Station Square, leaving the seven lying there.

PART 4

ONE HOUR LATER

The five simply unconscious ponies sat up with effort. At this point they didn't realize that two of their friends weren't going to come around.

"Well that was certainly a bit of a tight spot there." Rarity groaned, rubbing her head.

"Agreed." Twilight said, spitting up some water. "Rainbow Dash, Cobalt, are you two okay?"

There was no answer. Their friends' lifeless bodies didn't move.

"Wakey wakey!" Pinkie tried, getting in their faces. That didn't work either. Finally, throwing aside all politeness, Fluttershy trotted over and checked for a pulse. After a few seconds, she turned back to her friends, looking stricken. "They're dead."

A collective gasp went up. "D-dead?" Applejack stammered. "No, it can't be!"

"Whatever are we going to do?" Rarity asked, feeling tears begin to form in her eyes.

"I'm afraid if they're dead, then there's only one thing we _can_ do." Twilight sighed. "It's been said that the elements have reviving powers, but Eggman has all of them. I suppose we could try to get them, but–"

"_Or_ we could just use the ones right next to us." Pinkie suggested, holding up the element of laughter.

The group let out some forced, slightly insane giggles. "If Eggman is leaving us the elements, he must think we're doomed for sure." Fluttershy chuckled.

"Let's prove the varmit wrong, eh girls?" Applejack grinned.

They placed all six elements in a circle around the two, and Twilight spoke some sort of ancient incantation. The two pegasi's corpses hovered into the air along with the elements, which started spinning around them in a rapid orbit. All of a sudden the elements froze, and then collapsed in on the pegasi, creating a giant white flash.

When the five's vision had cleared, they saw an epic sight.

Rainbow Dash and Cobalt were now emitting a brilliant aura of strength that suggested that they had taken an amazing power boost. But the most amazing part of this was that they were looking very much alive. Rainbow's mane was flowing like Celestia's usually did.

Rainbow glanced down at her form, and groaned. "Aw man, I'm dead, aren't I?"

Cobalt looked down at himself as well, and then glanced back around at everypony. "Far from it, I think."

"He's right." Twilight informed her friends. "You did die for a while, but thanks to Eggman's usual bad planning we got you back to life with the elements."

"Hang on, the elements can work on one pony and not only as a group?" Rainbow asked. "This is so awesome!"

"Does this mean my memory…" Cobalt wondered, racking his brain. "Nope."

"What are you calling yourself?" Pinkie asked cheerily. "You must have a name! YOU HAVE TO HAVE A NAME!"

"How about… Harmonic Dash?" Rainbow suggested.

"I'm gonna have to copy that first part." Cobalt said with a grin. "Harmonic Cobalt… I like that! So what can we do now like this?" he got an idea from a faint memory he'd had of a blue spiked ball smashing stuff. "I'm gonna _roll_ with this idea." He launched himself forward and rolled forward in the air, like a more concise version of a flip, allowing his mane and tail to connect in a sharp sphere of cutting. "Spin attack baby! Woohoo!"

_What can I do?_ Rainbow wondered. Suddenly an urge struck her and her eyes turned pure white. "Harmonic Blast!" she yelled, and fired a rainbow from her chest, blowing another hole in Eggman's base. Her eyes returned to normal. "AWESOMENESS! Cobalt, I'd hug you, but I think that might kill me again. Let's go kick Chaos' butt!"

IN STATION SQUARE

The city was in chaos, literally. The whole town was flooded with water intoxicated with Chaos' energy. In the center of the town Perfect Chaos stood, using its tentacles to cause collateral damage.

Until… "Chaos, that is enough! You have done your duty, now stop!" Eggman commanded his monster. In response, Chaos shot his Eggmobile down, confirming its treason. "Cobalt Spikes, Rainbow Dash, help!" Eggman screamed as he crashed into the water. A blue blur scooped him out of the water. "Thank you Cobalt!"

"I don't like this any more than you do." Cobalt growled, setting him down on a nearby building. "Now be a good Eggman and stay put."

Meanwhile, Rainbow shot a few harmonic blasts into Chaos, but that only seemed to make it angrier as the destroyed areas reconstructed themselves. "Uh, Cobalt? We might have a problem!"

"There's a weak point in its head, right where the brain would be if it had one!" Eggman advised.

"Leave it to Eggman to harness a monster with no brain." Cobalt muttered, rushing at Perfect Chaos with a charged up spin attack. He connected with the yellow weak point and was blasted back near the water's edge onto a hovering piece of concrete kept up by a spout of water by Chaos' roar of pain.

"On it!" Rainbow barrel rolled under a tentacle, flying through the smashed window of an office building and out the other side right in Chaos' face. "Take this!" she fired a harmonic blast at point range, nailing the weak point right in the center. Another chaos energy shot flew at her, but a spiked blue ball slammed it away. Cobalt uncurled and shot her a grin. "Homing attack! Think you can beat that, Dashie?"

She hovered back, crossing her forelegs and putting on a smirk. "Yes, I can. DUCK!" He didn't question her order and swooped downward as she fired a harmonic blast, blasting the tentacle that had been about to whack Cobalt out of the air to pieces.

Cobalt's face took on a more serious expression. "Okay, enough toying around. Let's destroy this thing once and for all, shall we?"

"Right." Rainbow agreed. Their eyes met and instantly they knew what to do.

"Boost." They said at the same time. They flew next to each other at terminal speeds, heading right for Chaos' weak point. Once they were close enough, they linked forehooves and started spinning, glowing with a rainbow light, essentially becoming a spiked, pure harmony filled ball of doom.

The two rammed straight into Perfect Chaos, smashing its weak point into a thousand tiny little pieces. Without its power source, Chaos let out a dying scream and exploded into a massive, nondestructive tidal wave.

Cobalt and Rainbow separated, their power spent, and the elements flew out of them in six different directions. Drained from the experience, the two fell into the floodwater, unconscious. They were quickly fished out by medical services before they could die again and rushed to the nearest hospital in the next town over.

The battle was over, and the good guys had won.

THREE DAYS LATER

Rainbow Dash's eyes snapped open for the first time since she'd passed out. She'd been having the worst nightmare that they'd failed and all her friends were dead. She wiped away the cold sweat and was comforted by the sight of Cobalt passed out in the hospital bed next to her. _We did win_.

_What happened to Eggman, though?_ She continued pondering. _Did he escape, or drown? Heck, as much as I hate the guy, it would be pretty harsh if he died. And the elements and emerald, what happened with those? And my friends! The last I heard, they were mass teleporting back the Thorndyke place, but…_

Her thoughts were quickly settled as she read a letter with a picture of all her friends, still alive thank Celestia, attached. It was obvious that Twilight was writing this one even before she read the sender's name at the bottom.

_ To whichever of my hospitalized friends happens to be reading this,_

_Hello! We're fine and back with the Thorndykes. Also, Pinkie say to tell you that it was super duper fun to watch you both beat Chaos like you did. In regard to the questions you may be asking: Eggman is still alive, but he fled and is probably plotting his next move, the elements and the chaos emerald involved are scattered and have yet to be found again, and you all are due for release in about two weeks, assuming this is the third day you have been at this hospital. The entire city is rebuilt by now, these humans are amazingly efficient with a capable supervisor (i.e. me). Amazing work with Chaos, and we hope you're better soon._

_Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle_

Rainbow smirked. Well _that_ answered her questions. Getting out of the hospital bed, she trotted over to Cobalt and tried to rouse him. "Hey blue blur? You still with me there?"

Cobalt groaned, slipping out of unconsciousness land. "Hi Dashie. Did we win?"

"Yep. You were awesome." She replied, but was pretty sure he only heard the first part since his eyes closed and his breathing became extremely steady once more. Rainbow smiled. "See you when you wake up, Spikes." She kissed him on the forehead, assuming he wasn't awake to notice, and trotted downstairs to the hospital cafeteria.

Key word: assuming. He had simply slipped into unconsciousness for a few seconds, and was very much awake when she did that. He grinned, looking forward to two peaceful weeks with nothing to do but talk with his friend.

Little did he know that somepony plotting in the shadows was going to make sure that his two weeks weren't peaceful whatsoever.

**Hehehe. That was ominous. Thumbs up if you can guess what I'm doing next!**

**So seriously, nobody has ****_any_**** questions whatsoever? I was being serious about just asking if you're wondering anything guys. Well anyway, see ya as soon as I can get something up.**


	10. Live and Learn Part 1 (Police Trouble)

**Hello guys! If you guessed that this was the Sonic Advance 2 adaptation, you were wrong! But if you thought it was Sonic ****_Adventure_**** 2, you are correct! This takes place one week after the events of last chapter, and if you're wondering what's up with this, you probably didn't read that! I'm only going to be sticking very loosely to the plot to keep things moving.**

**I got a question! To Shadowisepicz: Because it's FUN!**

A week had passed, and it had been awesome for the two hospitalized pegasi. Nothing to do but sit around and talk? Yes. No responsibilities? Correct.

Until today, when they'd been arrested. There wasn't any explanation whatsoever until they were already given harnesses that restrained their wings and were in the government helicopter on the way to Prison Island.

"You're awful quiet." One of the guards, armed with a loaded rifle and proudly wearing the G.U.N standard, commented. "Yesterday you two robbed a bank and today we can't get two words outta ya."

Cobalt Spikes gave a cocky grin. "Guess we're not feeling too chatty."

The soldiers immediately responded by drawing their weapons and training them on the two prisoners. "You'd better watch your sass, horses!"

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "See, this is why we didn't talk. Now we're gonna have to kick your flanks so you don't shoot your own helicopter."

The pilot heard several messages go over the intercom: "They're taking over the entire ship!" and, "Nearly all of our guards are down!" which was immediately followed by, "WAAH!" and the unmistakable sound of flesh hitting metal.

Another, higher pitched voice that sounded prone to cracking came over the intercom. "This flight was terrible. No movies or food? Really? We're going to leave now. Bye!"

The pilot looked out the right window and saw the two tearing flaps from the wings of the plane.

OUTISDE

"Think of it like snowboarding!" Cobalt shouted over the roar of the wind.

"Sounds fun! It'd be more fun if I wasn't wearing this stupid harness though!" Rainbow complained. "It's heavy!"

"Get over it!" Cobalt said with a grin, and jumped off the wing of the plane with the flap like a snowboard.

"Wait for me!" Rainbow followed his lead. The two spiraled downward in a suicidal path to the sloping streets below, hoping that they would land on a steep enough slope not to break every bone in their body and pancake on the concrete.

**Cue City Escape Act 1 music from SA2**

Their wish was granted, and they fell on a sloping city street where they could have performed a simple, easy snowboard-like run to the bottom. Key words: could have. That was because of the police robots moving out all over Station Square and the daily traffic running up and down the street. So instead of just turning when necessary, the two were performing sharp banks and acrobatic maneuvers simply to stay alive. At one point, they had to use a police blockade like a ramp and vault over it. Handrails and sidewalks gave a few moments of relative peace while grinding the rail or simply evading people.

Eventually they did get to the bottom of the slope and dismounted the makeshift boards. They quickly got each other free of the harnesses and tossed them in a nearby trash can. Cobalt looked around, squinting. "Where are we?"

Rainbow read a nearby sign. "Station Square Park."

"It's not safe here." Cobalt stated. As if to prove his point, two G.U.N beetle sentries popped up out of nowhere, only to be smashed five seconds later.

"Why can't we escape into the air?" Rainbow asked.

He pointed into the air, at hundreds of G.U.N beetles swarming in the air. "We'd never make it through, no matter _how_ fast we go."

Rainbow glanced down the path, spotting something that alarmed her greatly. "TRUCK!"

**End music**

**Cue Mad Convoy music (G.U.N Truck Chase)**

The two started to hightail it out of the way of the truck that was tearing up the entire park in its efforts to run them over. They started down several sloping streets, keeping close to the ground as to not be in range of the air blockade. The truck's chase was relentless, pursuing them through several streets.

"I really hate this thing!" Cobalt complained, putting on an extra burst of speed to evade the crazy sixteen-wheeler.

The truck finally crashed into a solid metal wall and was unable to keep going, having its front smashed in. Rainbow pointed at a sewer lid and they disappeared without a word into the waste systems below.

**End music**

WITH THE OTHERS

Fluttershy sat on the floor, nervously watching the news reports that were all about the grand theft of one of the chaos emeralds from a nearby bank, supposedly committed by Cobalt and Rainbow Dash. The security footage was played once more, and she got the uneasy feeling that something there wasn't right. It took her a few more replays, but she eventually put a hoof on it.

She ran into the next room over, where her friends were playing poker to pass the time. "Guys! Guys!" everypony glanced up, causing her to blush in shame and shrink back a little. "Um, sorry. I didn't mean to yell."

"What is it, Fluttershy?" Twilight asked.

"I know it wasn't Cobalt and Rainbow!" Fluttershy announced excitedly.

"We all do, dear, but we don't have any evidence." Rarity agreed. A second later she tapped her ear like something was in it.

"I _do_!" Fluttershy smiled. "One of the ponies who stole the emerald had horn a horn _and_ wings, and the other had a beak!"

"But that would mean a team-up of an alicorn and a griffon, and that doesn't make any sense…" Twilight trailed off.

"What color was the emerald?" Applejack asked, her interest rising.

"They said it was a deep scarlet colored one, so pretty much red." Fluttershy summed up everything she'd heard.

"We haven't seen a red one before!" Pinkie Pie bounced by in the background.

"Which means that somepony else has found one and warped here." Twilight connected the dots in her head. "This is groundbreaking!"

Pinkie stuck her head in from the living room. "Speaking of breaking, there's breaking news on the TELEVISION!" she must've turned up the volume, because the announcer's voice resonated through the walls so it could plainly be heard.

"_Suspects Cobalt Spikes and Rainbow Dash have escaped government custody, and are hiding in downtown Station Square. There is a three hundred thousand dollar reward for the capture of these wanted fugitives, dead or alive."_

LATER THAT DAY IN THE SEWERS OF DOWNTOWN

Rainbow Dash attempted to get some of the mud out of her mane. Her efforts were fruitless, instead causing the mud to spread, covering more of the colored strands. "What I would give for a shower right now." She muttered, smiling slightly.

Cobalt, however, was deep in thought. "What did we do?" he pondered. All of a sudden, he pointed at Rainbow. "Unless it was those extra packs of hot sauce you took at the cafeteria, then we were set up."

"_Me_?" Rainbow exclaimed in mock anger, yet she couldn't hide the faint grin on her face. "You know I have no tolerance for spicy stuff!" at this point she was up in his face.

He delicately pushed her away, now out of his brooding mood and into his normal one. He shot her a confident smirk. "You're cute when you're angry. It's both threatening and endearing at the same time."

Before she could respond, they heard a shout from the distance, echoing through the pipe. "There they are! Kill 'em so we can get the money!"

A pitchfork made of sharp kitchen utensils, rope, and a broomstick impaled itself in the concrete next to them. Very slowly, they glanced at each other.

"Run?"

"Yep."

They took off in the opposite direction of the voices and pitchforks and up through the sewer lid and into the city night, sighing in relief.

They allowed themselves a few seconds to catch their breath. Or rather, two shadowy silhouettes did, before teleporting in a flash of red light down to the street level.

"Glad to finally meet you, blue and rainbow pegasi." The black colored one said, his red eyes flashing.

WITH THE OTHERS AGAIN

_"Breaking news! The wanted fugitives Cobalt Spikes and Rainbow Dash have appeared downtown, and appear to be confronting another group of winged creatures. Police forces are moving out to bring these outlaws to justice."_ The news announcer… announced.

"Downtown?" Fluttershy asked herself. She'd self-assigned herself to be the monitor of all news concerning their friends. "I've got to tell everypony!"

A FEW MINUTES LATER

Chuck's old car rumbled down the road to downtown at its top speed.

WITH OUR FAVORITE FUGITIVES

"Who are you?" Cobalt growled. The second figure stepped out of the shadows, and it was one everypony recognized.

"GILDA?" the outlaws exclaimed in unison.

"That's right." The griffon gave a smile. "I see you're not stupid as well as lame. After you humiliated me in Ponyville, this guy and I collected the red chaos emerald as well as the cyan one, and used it to travel here. Nopony will ever find the cyan one, though. When we got here, we thought: what better way to get revenge than to frame you?"

"I get it now." Rainbow snarled. "The police have been confusing us for the likes of you!"

"Speaking of, who are you?" Cobalt asked the black alicorn stallion.

"I'm Shadow, the Ultimate Lifeform." The stallion's voice was gruff, making him sound much older than he looked.

"Aw man, dude you're that guy Twilight likes!" (**get the description from that chapter**) Cobalt groaned. "You're from my memory!"

"Am I?" Shadow raised an eyebrow. "Strange, I thought your mind would be wiped for good after what happened. And who is this Twilight?"

"None of your business!" Rainbow snapped. "You two have two choices: surrender and let the police get you, or get your flanks kicked and let the police get you. Your choice."

"We don't want an all out fight." Gilda raised a claw in her defense. "We're here only to challenge you to a speed fight."

"A speed fight? I'm more interested in what you know about my past." Cobalt addressed Shadow.

Shadow smirked. "If you can beat me fair and square, I'll tell you all I know about your memory _and_ be arrested willingly _and_ you'll get the chaos emerald."

"Deal." Cobalt agreed. "I'll give you a head start."

Shadow took this cue and started flying down the road, followed closely by Cobalt.

"You ready to finish our fight once and for all?" Rainbow asked Gilda, taking an offensive stance.

"I've been ready." Gilda snarled, mirroring Rainbow's attacking form. "Let's go, Lamebow Crash."

Meanwhile down the road, Cobalt was trying to catch Shadow but finding that no matter how hard he pushed himself, Shadow always seemed to be ahead. "He really _is_ faster than me!"

Cobalt heard a rumbling in the distance, and whipped around to see Chuck's car. "It's not speed, dear!" he heard Rarity call. "He's using teleportation!"

A vision of a black splotch of color standing over a blue splotch on a black background took over his vision. "Well meet again, blue –." the black splotch's last word was blurred, but the voice sounded much like Shadow's, and it vanished into nothing.

"I've seen this before." Cobalt remarked before he was sucked back into the real world.

Cobalt woke up to a punch in the face from Shadow, and back down the road Rainbow had just received three nasty claw marks across her face and muzzle.

"I'd love to stay, but it seems you have a date with the authorities." Shadow gloated, teleporting over to Gilda and out of there.

"Hey! Wait!" Cobalt called after them before he noticed the police forces surrounding him and Rainbow. "You're under arrest! There's no place to run!"

"Aw man, not again…"

To Be Continued In Part 2…

**Hi, sorry this was kind of short, but I realized that if I wanted to stick with my usual pattern of cliffhangers in two part things (thank you Shadowisepicz), I'd have to leave it at this.**

**Why are Gilda and Shadow here? Where's Eggman? Will Rainbow and Cobalt escape? Why do I ask these questions when I know the answers?**


	11. Live and Learn Part 2 (The End)

**HAPPY NEW YEAR!**

**Hello! This is the last chapter in this, and boy am I glad to say I've finished something. My dad has really been getting on my case about finishing a project, and here it is!**

**werewolf lover 99: Each to his own, I guess.**

**RandomPerson65: That's in this chapter!**

Prison Island. The place for the baddest of the bad, the worst of the worst. Impenetrable, inescapable. And currently home to two miserable pegasi.

The head of security let out a slightly insane laugh, slamming a fist down on the coffee table during a meeting. "Cobalt Spikes and Rainbow Dash had better get comfortable, because there's no way out! We've got round the clock guards, state of the art monitoring gear, and they're all wrapped around one perfectly designed cell! Hah!"

One of the officers stared at his captain like he was insane, which he might have been. _I know Cobalt and Rainbow Dash are innocent, but I can't prove it! I hope they're okay…_

INSIDE THE CELL

Cobalt sat sprawled out on the floor, relaxing as much as he could when he had hydrophobia and was surrounded by water. Rainbow sat next to him, staring ahead blankly, already getting restless even though she'd only been confined for an hour. She struggled against the extra strength harness, but no matter how hard she tried it wouldn't budge.

_It's probably for the best._ She thought miserably. _The second I get it off, they'll put a new one on._

They were miserable, yet it was the best they could hope for until rescue, and so they could only wait, with nothing to do but talk and try not to focus on the cameras filming them from every angle.

ONE TITLE SEQUENCE LATER

Cobalt gradually became aware of tears trickling down Rainbow's face, only halting slightly as they passed over the healing scars Gilda had left on her face. "Why the sad face, Dashie?"

"It's nothing." Rainbow replied dismissively, yet this didn't really do anything since there were still tears spilling out of her eyes.

"Right; now the real reason?" Cobalt pressed.

"I hate failing." She replied matter of factly, right before her stomach gave a heave, like she was sick. "I just feel so guilty, like this was all my fault, and guilt really sucks to carry around. It makes me feel queasy and depressed." She pointed at her heart, underneath the tight harness. "It hurts in here."

"It's not your fault, why would you think that?" Cobalt asked, wondering how anypony could make an assumption that hurt them so much, until he remembered how he'd done something like that himself not too long ago, when he'd banished himself from Ponyville. "Dash, please stop beating yourself up about this." He begged her, remembering how terrible he'd felt when he'd done that to himself.

"But I–" she protested.

"Got beaten by Gilda, yeah, wasn't fast enough to run away from the police, yes again." He agreed with a nod. "And trust me, I don't like this situation any more than you do, but blaming yourself doesn't help any. I know."

"I– I…" she knew he was right, but she still felt bad.

"Okay, if it takes this for you to feel better, then so be it." Cobalt gave her a tight hug. "Are you okay now?"

She gave a sad smile. "As good as I'll be until we're out of here."

Cobalt narrowed his green eyes. "Speaking of… where are they anyway?"

WHERE THEY ARE

"We cannot go any further in the helicopter plane, master Chris." Mister Tanaka explained. "That is why I have prepared a special vessel that will get us in under radar."

Twilight Sparkle, who was captaining the helicopter form of her helicopter plane, hit a button and a robotic claw lowered a peculiar looking boat into the waters below.

"It's a rubber duck." Chris said, giving Mister Tanaka a weird look.

"It is a rubber duck _shaped_ paddle boat, master Chris." Mister Tanaka corrected as they lowered themselves into the odd boat.

"Good luck guys!" Applejack called. "Have fun!"

"Bring back coffee!" Pinkie Pie added.

MEANWHILE, IN EGGMAN'S NEW, UNDESTROYED DESERT BASE

Eggman blew on a party… thingy **(what are those things called?)**, making a sound like a dying duck. "We've won!" he addressed one black and red alicorn and one griffon. "Thanks to you, Shadow and Gilda, we've managed to get those two wretched pegasi locked up forever!"

"I wouldn't get too excited, doctor." Shadow said darkly. "There is still the prospect of their friends freeing them."

"And you still haven't started your Eclipse Cannon thingy." Gilda added, able to spot all the flaws in Eggman's plan just as well as Shadow.

"Pish-posh!" Eggman was still ecstatic.

"How is your memory, master?" a robot servant monotoned.

Eggman gritted his teeth, holding the side of his head. "Better than the last time you asked. More is coming back to me, but I still can't remember everything."

"Message for you, doctor!" Bokkun **(aforementioned in chapter 6)** hovered down, holding up a tiny yellow television.

A display of the least likely person… or pony to be exact… that would ever wish to leave a message for Eggman popped onto the screen of the yellow television. Rarity Amiz La'coutre looked at the recording television like she was unsure of something. "Is this thing on?" she asked. After a brief pause, she continued with, "Um, hello Doctor Eggman. I wish to inform you that I am right outside of your new base, and I would like to join you. I've brought a peace offering." She held up two of the elements, honesty and loyalty. "If you'd let me in, that would be nice."

The television then exploded in Eggman's face, leading to suppressed laughter from Gilda and an exasperated sigh from Shadow.

Eggman pressed the button to open his front door and after a few seconds, Rarity dropped in from the ceiling, landing with a thump. "Well, that was a bit unsettling."

"Hello Rarity." Eggman addressed the newcomer. "If you'd hand over the elements, I have a job for you and my other recruits over at Prison Island."

"Lame." Gilda face…clawed.

AT A CLIFF ON PRISON ISLAND

"Master Chris, I will need you to stay with the boat." Mister Tanaka informed Chris. "This is far too dangerous."

"But Mister Tanaka," Chris began.

"No, master Chris." Mister Tanaka said with no room for argument. "When your parents entrusted me with your care, I made an oath not to put you in harm's way. You must sit this one out."

"Fine." Chris grumbled, slouching unhappily.

IN THE SKIES ABOVE

Twilight expertly aimed the gatling gun to blow up the sentry turrets that were firing at them from Prison Island. Fluttershy cowered in fear; this violence was too much for her. Meanwhile, Angel Bunny snuggled deep in her mane; the sounds of gunfire and nearing death were just perfect for this satanic rabbit's midday nap.

Pretty soon, the helicopter landed and its passengers disembarked to see a figure that looked much like Cobalt standing in front of the impenetrable gates with his back to them. Pinkie ran up and gave the unsuspecting figure a hug. "Cobalt! I'm so happy to see you! When you were gone it was really sad and–" she broke off as the figure gave her a look, making her un-hug him and step back a bit. "I-I'm _so_ sorry, I thought you were somepony else…"

"I don't have time for this." The figure scoffed, holding up the red chaos emerald and shouting, "CHAOS BLAST!" the gates exploded in a red blast. He turned and gave them one last look. "I would leave if I were you. In just a few minutes this place is detonating."

He whirled around and disappeared, but not before Twilight got a good look at his face. "Shadow?"

ABOUT A MINUTE LATER

The ponies had successfully penetrated the base's security, making it to the exterior of the pegasi's cell.

Unbeknownst to them, Shadow, Gilda, and reluctantly Rarity had placed mass explosives on the island, all wired for ten minutes. The clock was ticking.

Pinkie pressed a button as the rest of the ponies stood guard, and a bridge extended into the water that surrounded the spherical cell, and then flushed out the water, making a perfectly dry pathway from the exterior to the interior of the cage.

She bounced happily to the bars and started banging on them. "Wakey wakey sleepy heads!"

Cobalt yawned and stood up. "What is it, Dash? I was dreaming about pie." He looked ahead, then rubbed his eyes like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "And now I think I know why."

"Wake up Dashie!" Pinkie said, giving a huge smile. Rainbow got up after a few seconds and tried to stretch like she usually did when waking up, before realizing the harness wouldn't let her do that. She settled for doing a stretch kind of like a dog, giving a huge yawn. "Took ya long enough, guys. Do you know how humiliating it is to be monitored 24/7?"

"Nope!" Pinkie couldn't say she did. "Hurry up, guys! We ran into Shadow and this whole island is going to go boom in a few minutes!"

"What the buck?" Cobalt didn't even halt to think of the kind of language he was using. "Shadow's here?"

"Yep!"

"Man, that can't be good." He sighed, ramming into the cell door and using his padded harness to sort of absorb the shock. The door busted open and the three ran away.

Meanwhile, Mister Tanaka had given up when he couldn't get past phase one of the defense, and returned to the boat only to find that Chris had gone. He would have gone after him, but a giant wave carried him far away from the cliff face.

SEVEN MINUTES LATER

By the time the group saw daylight again, most of their time had elapsed, and when they met up with the other group that came from Equestria, they couldn't say they weren't mad.

"Rarity?!" Applejack exclaimed angrily. "Now when y'all said you had somethin' else to do, Ah never thought in a million years you'd turn traitor!"

"Of course I wouldn't, Applejack." Rarity scoffed, striding over back to her friends' side. "It was my orders from the government to find out information from Eggman by acting as if I was on his side, and it worked. But now I am _through_ with these G.U.N hooligans!" she tore a tiny microphone out of her ear and stomped on it, saying, "_Through! With! Them!_"

"Okay then." Applejack seemed slightly rattled by her friend's brief moment of insanity. "Now as for you jerks!" she growled at Shadow and Gilda.

The alicorn and griffon glanced at each other and charged. Gilda homed in on Rainbow Dash, slashing out to try to cut yet another three gashes across her former friend. Rainbow countered this by flopping onto her back and letting Gilda instead rip open the harness, freeing her wings. "Thank you!"

Twilight countered Shadow's attacks with her magic, and was surprised to find that he was as good as she was. "Where'd you learn such fancy magic, Shadow?" she grunted as she flung away clumps of stone directed at her friends, currently trying to free Cobalt from his harness.

"I could ask the same of you." He growled, pressing his attacks forward into melee blows. For one awkward moment, they were nose to nose, and Twilight could've sworn she saw a blush on his face, but she was knocked aside a second later and didn't know for sure.

Finally Cobalt was freed, and tackled Shadow to the ground. "Stupid jerk!" he punched Shadow across the face. "Framing me and hurting my friends!"

Shadow grinned, narrowing his eyes. A red glint told the others he'd pulled out a chaos emerald, and they all piled on top of him as he said the trigger words. Chris just managed to make contact right before the group disappeared, and the island blew.

ON THE SPACE COLONY ARK

A pile of ponies, one griffon, and one human appeared at the feet of Doctor Eggman. They quickly separated into their different sides.

"Ah, friends. So glad you could join us!" Eggman said with a big, evil smile.

"What's your plan, Eggman?!" Cobalt asked, way past ticked off at his archenemy.

"So quick to anger, are we?" Eggman kept his polite guise. "I will tell you, just as soon as you give me that element you have with you."

Cobalt pulled the element of generosity out of his mane. "You mean this one? Not a chance."

Eggman's response was to snap his fingers; cuing Plan B. Shadow launched himself forward and grabbed Rainbow, dragging her forcefully over toward Eggman, who lowered a gun at her head. "No funny moves Cobalt. Hand over the element and I'll let her go."

A collective gasp went up from the rest of the elements, Cobalt, and Chris. "You wouldn't." Cobalt tried to call Eggman's bluff, but the mad scientist wasn't playing a trick this time, obvious since he cocked the gun.

Rainbow flashed Cobalt a pleading glance, slowly shaking her head no.

"I suppose I should explain myself first." Eggman went on. "See, I have nearly all the emeralds and elements needed to power this planet's denizen's finest weapon: the Eclipse Cannon! First I would threaten to destroy the earth with this masterful weapon of destruction, then the humans would offer their freedom in exchange for not being destroyed! I would be their merciful overlord! But I need your last element." He went on to explain about himself. "You're probably wondering how I attained Metal Sonic's emerald. Well the truth is… I _am_ Metal Sonic!"

Cobalt's jaw dropped open. "Wait…"

"In reality, this form is a well working machine." Eggman gestured down at himself. "Metal Sonic built the first base and myself based on his memory records, and then used the small sliver of my recorded consciousness to bring my personality back! Then my wonderful creation uploaded the memory I recorded into him back into this form's hard drive. I don't have all the memories yet, but I know who you were before you got your memory wiped! But since I'm so evil, I won't tell you!" he finished this shell shocking speech by jabbing the barrel viciously into the side of Rainbow Dash's head. "The element. Now."

"Don't do it." Rainbow protested.

"Sorry, Dash." Cobalt sighed, stepping forward with the element. The second Eggman took it, the evil genius pressed a button, cuing a cylindrical pod to encase Cobalt, who glared at the maniacal scientist, his words muffled by the glass. "Okay Eggman, I figured you'd trick me, so I want a chance to say goodbye before you do whatever."

"Of course, Cobalt. After all, last requests are customary for the condemned." Eggman said with an evil grin.

Cobalt turned toward Chris. "Chris Thorndyke, thank you for all you've done for us since we got here. I don't know how we would've survived without your help. You're a good boy, and I know you'll grow up to be a great man. I don't think I'm gonna see you again, so I guess this is goodbye for good. And as for the rest of you, I assume Eggman won't let you go free, so I'll see you on the flip side." He smirked and gave a wink, like he had a plan.

Eggman pressed the button for the pod's release, dropping the blue pegasus through the floor and into earth's atmosphere. "Too long." He then lowered the gun. "Lock them up." He ordered his robots and agents. "And send the boy back to earth."

Despite Chris and the elements' protests and slight resistance, Chris was crammed into a safe, non-deadly escape pod that would deposit him gently back at his home, and the elements were thrown into cells in the prison section of the Ark.

ABOUT AN HOUR LATER

Eggman was just about to press his button to ready the Eclipse Cannon when a blue blur slammed into his side, causing him to lose his grip on the trigger panel.

"Sorry, Eggface, but I don't think that fried earth is on the menu today." Cobalt said, standing triumphantly next to the control panel and ripping out both elements and emeralds. "See, you forgot two crucial things: one, I can fly and knock open doors, and two, you may have had all the emeralds you needed, but you were still missing one of the three emeralds!" He held up the green emerald. "I simply busted out before I crashed, and got the green emerald. I can use Chaos Control too, you know! And if you'd excuse me, I'll be busting my friends out of your little cells."

He flew as fast as he could to the cell area of the Ark, calling out to his friends like the Marco-Polo game.

"Hey! Guys!" He greeted his friends who were sitting behind steel bars, which he kicked out easily. He was tackle-hugged by Rainbow, who'd been sitting and crying at the thought that he was dead. She squeezed him to the point that he thought she might break his bones. "Whoa, take it easy Dashie."

"I-I missed you, Spikes." She sobbed into his shoulder. "I thought you might never come back."

"Well, guess what I got?" he broke away from the hug and dumped the gems of power on the floor to a chorus of "right on" and "good going". "We've gotta do this portal thing quick, so let's get to it!"

"Yay! Portal fun!" Pinkie cheered.

Each of the bearers put on their respective elements and began the portal just as Eggman rounded the corner holding his pistol, causing them to panic and nearly lose their concentration. Cobalt initiated Chaos Control right before Eggman got to them and stumbled into the portal, followed unknowingly by Shadow and Gilda, and finally the elements and Cobalt, who brought the emeralds along with him.

The portal shut and the door to Equestria closed.

The two parties have left earth for good, but what new scenarios await them on the other side of the portal?

END X FILES: TO BE CONTINUED IN ORIGINAL


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